Materials World Network: Self-Assembled DNA Nanotubes: Biomimetic Design, Controlled Surface Alignment and Templated Nanowire Formation

这个材料世界网络项目旨在开发各种新的策略来实现对自组装DNA纳米管的控制。采用仿生自组装的方法，利用DNA作为可编程的结构构建块来设计和开发新型纳米结构材料。这项国际合作的目标是：1）模仿自然界强大的微管结构，设计出具有更好机械性能的螺旋DNA纳米管; 2）开发表面排列方法，将DNA纳米管组装成二维网络，从而将自下而上的自组装与自上而下的光刻方法结合在一起; 3）基于DNA纳米管的更强的机械性质和它们在表面上的排列，实现改进的DNA模板纳米线形成。该项目由美国亚利桑那州立大学（Yan博士）和德国德累斯顿工业大学（Mertig博士）合作完成，其学术价值在于以DNA纳米管为模板的纳米线或纳米颗粒组装体为纳米尺度领域中探索具有新颖环形几何结构的电子/磁性/光学性质提供了前所未有的机会。生物启发的自组装可能被证明在制造具有更小特征尺寸的计算机芯片方面是有用的。 该项目具有更广泛的影响：1）将研究成果纳入两所大学的材料研究课程开发。这类课程的例子包括德累斯顿的“分子生物工程”和亚利桑那州立大学的“纳米生物技术”; 2）通过高中外联方案向高中学生讲授“仿生自组装”专题; 3）向更广泛的少数民族社区受众传播尖端的物质研究知识，鼓励代表性不足的学生从事科学事业。由国际科学与工程办公室资助。

This Materials World Network project aims to develop various novel strategies to achieve control over self-assembled DNA nanotubes. A bio-mimetic self-assembly approach is taken to use DNA as programmable construction building block to engineer and develop novel nanostructured materials. The goals of this international collaboration are aimed at: 1) Mimicking nature's strong microtubule structure to design spiral DNA nanotubes that will have improved mechanical properties; 2) Developing surface alignment methods to assemble DNA nanotubes into two-dimensional networks, thereby bridging the bottom-up self-assembly with top-down lithographic approaches together; 3) Achieving improved DNA templated nanowire formation based on stronger mechanic properties of the DNA nanotubes and their alignment on surface. This project involves extensive collaboration between Arizona State University (Dr. Yan) in US and Dresden University of Technology (Dr. Mertig) in Germany.The intellectual merit of the project lies in that DNA nanotube templated nanowire or nanoparticle assembly provides unprecedented opportunities to explore electronics/magnetics/optical properties with novel annular geometries in nanoscale domains. The bio-inspired self-assembly may prove useful in creating computer chips with smaller feature sizes. The project has broader impact by: 1) Integrating the research results into the material research curriculum developments at both universities. Examples of such courses include "Molecular Bioengineering" at Dresden and "Nanobiotechnology" at ASU; 2) Teaching "Bio-mimetic Self-assembly" topics to high school students through a high school outreach program; 3) Disseminating cutting-edge material research knowledge to a wider audience of minority communities and encourage underrepresented students to pursue careers in science.This award is co-funded with the Office of International Science and Engineering.