Driving diffusionless transformations in colloidal crystals using DNA handshaking

Casey, Marie T.; Scarlett, Raynaldo; Rogers, W. Benjamin; Jenkins, Ian; Sinno, Talid; Crocker, John C.

doi:10.1038/ncomms2206

Cited by 121 publications

(173 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…Another possibility to target these phases is to modify the DNA shell to include additional AB repulsion forces that compete against hybridizations (28)(29)(30), which is achieved by inclusion of neutral (those that do not form hybridizations) DNA strands into the NP shell (28,30). In those systems, AuCu phases have been found (28,30). SE Systems.…”

Section: Implications For Npsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Binary nanoparticle superlattices of soft-particle systems

Travesset

2015

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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The solid-phase diagram of binary systems consisting of particles of diameter σ A = σ and σ B = γσ (γ ≤ 1) interacting with an inverse p = 12 power law is investigated as a paradigm of a soft potential. In addition to the diameter ratio γ that characterizes hard-sphere models, the phase diagram is a function of an additional parameter that controls the relative interaction strength between the different particle types. Phase diagrams are determined from extremes of thermodynamic functions by considering 15 candidate lattices. In general, it is shown that the phase diagram of a soft repulsive potential leads to the morphological diversity observed in experiments with binary nanoparticles, thus providing a general framework to understand their phase diagrams. Particular emphasis is given to the two most successful crystallization strategies so far: evaporation of solvent from nanoparticles with grafted hydrocarbon ligands and DNA programmable self-assembly.phase separation | superlattices | crystalline phases | stoichiometry A rrangement of nanoparticles (NPs) into structures with long-range order encompasses a fundamental new type of materials with potential revolutionary applications in optics, photonics, catalysis, or novel fuel energy sources, just to name a few. Over the recent years there has been a spectacular success in the assembly of nanoparticle superlattice (NPS), with the two most successful strategies consisting of evaporation of a solvent from NPs with grafted hydrocarbon chains (1-4) [solvent evaporation (SE) systems] or the programmable self-assembly of DNA grafted NPs (5-7) in water (DNA systems).Although there are different models available to investigate DNA systems (8-13), studies of SE systems have been almost (except, for example, in ref. 14) exclusively based on the hardsphere (HS) model, following the pioneering work of Murray and Sanders on micrometer-sized colloidal systems (15). However, HS models do not provide a satisfactory description of experiments, as clear from the fact that crystals isomorphic to MgZn 2 , CaCu 5 (1), body centered cube AB6 (bcc-AB 6 ) (4) [also known as Cs 6 C 60 (7)], or quasi-crystals (16), just to name a few, have not been reported as equilibrium phases for HS (17,18). It has also been observed that different binary systems with the same NP hydrodynamic radius (with different hydrocarbon chain length, for example) do not exhibit the same equilibrium phase (19), clearly pointing to a phase diagram that depends on other parameters besides the ratio of the two NPs diameters, which completely determines the phase diagram of the HS system (15).The interaction between two NPs is far more complex than a HS because the polymer shell (consisting of grafted hydrocarbons or DNA) is flexible. In the limit where the grafted polymers are infinitely long (f-star limit) such potential is known analytically (20) and does reveal a very soft tail. In SE evaporated systems, however, the grafted hydrocarbon chains contain between 9 and 18 hydrocarbons (3), which are too short to ...

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Section: Implications For Npsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Binary nanoparticle superlattices of soft-particle systems

Travesset

2015

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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“…The experimental field of view is a rectangle with a length and width of 85 and 114 particle diameters, respectively, with each field of view containing approximately 8000 particles. In this figure, the particle concentration is fixed at φarea = 0.66, while the magnetic field strength H is held constant at 7 Oe (corresponding to an effective temperature of T ≈ 0.081 in (19)). In simulations, we model a system commensurate in size to the experimental field of view with N = 10000 particles (see Section 3.4).…”

Section: Order Parameter and Domain Sizementioning

confidence: 99%

Crystallization kinetics of binary colloidal monolayers

et al. 2016

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Experiments and simulations are used to study the kinetics of crystal growth in a mixture of magnetic and nonmagnetic particles suspended in ferrofluid. The growth process is quantified using both a bond order parameter and a mean domain size parameter. The largest single crystals obtained in experiments consist of approximately 1000 particles and form if the area fraction is held between 65-70 % and the field strength is kept in the range of 8.5-10.5 Oe. Simulations indicate that much larger single crystals containing as many as 5000 particles can be obtained under impurity-free conditions within a few hours. If our simulations are modified to include impurity concentrations as small as 1-2 %, then the results agree quantitatively with the experiments. These findings provide an important step toward developing strategies for growing single crystals that are large enough to enable followon investigations across many subdisciplines in condensed matter physics.

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“…Anisotropic stress, rapid quenching, and a small system size have been found to promote martensitic transformations [19]. In colloids, martensitic transitions have been observed in small crystalline clusters [20][21][22] or lattices stretched by external fields [18,[23][24][25]. A solid-solid transition involving an activated nucleation process has recently been experimentally observed at the single-particle level for the first time in colloidal thin-film crystals confined between two glass plates [26].…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Nonclassical Nucleation in a Solid-Solid Transition of Confined Hard Spheres

Peng

Han

et al. 2015

Phys. Rev. Lett.

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A solid-solid phase transition of colloidal hard spheres confined between two planar hard walls is studied using a combination of molecular dynamics and Monte Carlo simulation. The transition from a solid consisting of five crystalline layers with square symmetry (5□) to a solid consisting of four layers with triangular symmetry (4△) is shown to occur through a nonclassical nucleation mechanism that involves the initial formation of a precritical liquid cluster, within which the cluster of the stable 4△ phase grows. Free-energy calculations show that the transition occurs in one step, crossing a single free-energy barrier, and that the critical nucleus consists of a small 4△ solid cluster wetted by a metastable liquid. In addition, the liquid cluster and the solid cluster are shown to grow at the planar hard walls. We also find that the critical nucleus size increases with supersaturation, which is at odds with classical nucleation theory. The △-solid-like cluster is shown to contain both face-centered-cubic and hexagonal-close-packed ordered particles. The kinetics of phase transitions plays an important role in condensed-matter physics and materials science. In order to gain a better fundamental understanding of how to control self-assembly processes in the fabrication of novel structures, many experimental and simulation studies have been devoted to colloidal systems. Experiments [1-4] and computer simulations [5][6][7] on bulk hard-sphere colloids suggested that the metastable fluid crystallizes and superheated crystals melt via a single-step nucleation process that is well described by classical nucleation theory (CNT) [8]. However, Ostwald's step rule suggests that the kinetic pathway to the most stable state can initially proceed through the nucleation of intermediate, metastable phases [9]. The effect of a nearby metastable state on nucleation and the occurrence of multistep nucleation processes have been studied in the crystallization of a range of systems including colloids [10,11], proteins [12], and patchy particles [13], and in the crystallization of molecular solids from solution [14].In contrast, the kinetic processes of solid-solid phase transitions, which involve complex structural rearrangements [15], have received considerably less attention [16]. Solid-solid transitions usually occur in a martensitic fashion [17,18] involving the concerted, diffusionless motion of the atoms in the unit cell. Anisotropic stress, rapid quenching, and a small system size have been found to promote martensitic transformations [19]. In colloids, martensitic transitions have been observed in small crystalline clusters [20][21][22] or lattices stretched by external fields [18,[23][24][25]. A solid-solid transition involving an activated nucleation process has recently been experimentally observed at the single-particle level for the first time in colloidal thin-film crystals confined between two glass plates [26]. The equilibrium phase diagram of hard spheres confined between two planar hard walls shows an alternati...

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Driving diffusionless transformations in colloidal crystals using DNA handshaking

Cited by 121 publications

References 27 publications

Binary nanoparticle superlattices of soft-particle systems

Binary nanoparticle superlattices of soft-particle systems

Crystallization kinetics of binary colloidal monolayers

Nonclassical Nucleation in a Solid-Solid Transition of Confined Hard Spheres

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