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Engineering the Nanoscaled Morphologies of Linear DNA Homopolymers
Author(s) -
Zheng Mengxi,
Li Qian,
Li Qian,
Paluzzi Victoria E.,
Choi Jong Hyun,
Mao Chengde
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
macromolecular rapid communications
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.348
H-Index - 154
eISSN - 1521-3927
pISSN - 1022-1336
DOI - 10.1002/marc.202100217
Subject(s) - polymer , supramolecular chemistry , materials science , supramolecular polymers , dna , nanotechnology , chain (unit) , scope (computer science) , polymer chemistry , polymer science , molecule , chemistry , computer science , composite material , physics , organic chemistry , astronomy , programming language , biochemistry
Supramolecular polymers have unique characteristics such as self‐healing and easy processing. However, the scope of their structures is limited to mostly either flexible, random coils or rigid, straight chains. By broadening this scope, novel properties, functions, and applications can be explored. Here, DNA is used as a model system to engineer innovative, nanoscaled morphologies of supramolecular polymers. Each polymer chain consists of multiple copies of the same short (38–46 nucleotides long) DNA strand. The component DNA strands first dimerize into homo‐dimers, which then further assemble into long polymer chains. By subtly tuning the design, a range of polymer morphologies are obtained; including straight chains, spirals, and closed rings with finite sizes. Such structures are confirmed by AFM imaging and predicted by molecular coarse simulation.