Engineering Nano-Building Block Toolboxes for Programmable Self-Assembly of Nanostructures with Arbitary Shapes and Functions

这项拨款为研究提供资金，用于开发实用、可控和可重复的方法，用于建模和实现自组装纳米结构，并将结构与纳米组装的功能结合起来。第一个目标是开发一种称为“纳米工具箱”的纳米构建块工具箱，用于具有任意形状和任意功能的纳米结构的可编程自组装。这是通过一种水相配体替代技术来控制DNA的数量、位置和方向来完成的，DNA在各种纳米颗粒上进行组装。第二个目标是开发使用构建块设计组件的实用方法，并将功能响应纳入设计过程。第三，为了证明我们的方法的可控性和可扩展性，由此产生的纳米工具箱将用于构建不同尺寸和形状的多模态和多功能3D混合纳米复合材料，在多个波长波段上具有增强的光学响应，使我们能够通过多种成像和治疗方式获得更全面，准确和可靠的信息。这项研究有可能将纳米级结构设计转化为可观察的、宏观的功能和材料特性。因此，这项研究使纳米技术更接近于自下而上制造具有新的、增强的性能和功能的可编程材料和器件的目标。此外，它还提供了功能性、可靠性和可扩展技术的能力，用于制造更复杂和可控的多功能纳米结构，这些纳米结构包含用于特定应用的各种纳米组件。如果成功，这项研究的结果有可能为所有规模和所有三个维度的“第二代”多功能建筑提供标准化设计和实验室程序。因此，这项研究有很大的潜力来改变许多研究领域，包括生物学、化学、物理学、医学、材料科学和工程。例如，具有更好等离子体响应和多模态特性的纳米结构可能会影响传感在生物和医学、治疗学和光伏器件中的应用。

This grant provides funding for research enabling the development of practical, controllable, and repeatable methods for both modeling and implementing self-assembled nanostructures, and to couple structure to the function of the nanoassembly. The first goal is to develop a nano-building block toolbox termed 'Nano-Toolbox' for the programmable self-assembly of nanostructures with arbitrary shapes and arbitrary functions. This is to be accomplished using an aqueous-phase ligand replacement technique to control the number, placement, and orientation of the DNA, which does the assembly, on various nanoparticles. The second goal is to develop practical methods to design assemblies using the building blocks, and to incorporate functional response into the design process. Third, to demonstrate the controllability and scalability of our approach, the resulting Nano-Toolbox will be used to construct multimodal and multifunctional 3D hybrid nanocomposites in different sizes and shapes with enhanced optical response over several wavelength bands, allowing us to acquire more comprehensive, accurate and reliable information using multiple imaging and therapeutic modalities.This research has the potential to translate a nanoscale design for a structure into observable, macroscopic functions and material properties. Thus, the research advances nanotechnology closer to the goal of bottom-up manufacture of programmable materials and devices with new, enhanced properties and functionality. In addition, it provides the capability for functional, reliable, and scalable techniques for manufacturing more complicated and controlled multifunctional nanostructures that incorporate diverse nanocomponents for specific applications. If successful, the results of this research have the potential to provide standardized design and laboratory procedures for 'second-generation' multifunctional architectures at all scales and in all three dimensions. Thus, this research has high potential to transform many fields of research, including biology, chemistry, physics, medicine, and materials science and engineering. For example, nanostructures with better plasmonic response and multimodal characteristics might impact sensing applications in biology and medicine, therapeutics, and photovoltaic devices.