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

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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.