Open AccessProgramming Colloidal Crystal Habit with Anisotropic Nanoparticle Building Blocks and DNA Bonds
Author(s) -
Matthew N. O’Brien,
Haixin Lin,
Martin Girard,
Mónica Olvera de la Cruz,
Chad A. Mirkin
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
journal of the american chemical society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 7.115
H-Index - 612
eISSN - 1520-5126
pISSN - 0002-7863
DOI - 10.1021/jacs.6b09704
Subject(s) - nanoparticle , dodecahedron , crystal habit , crystallography , octahedral symmetry , octahedron , crystallization , chemistry , anisotropy , colloidal crystal , chemical physics , faceting , colloid , crystal structure , nanotechnology , materials science , optics , physics , organic chemistry , ion
Colloidal crystallization can be programmed using building blocks consisting of a nanoparticle core and DNA bonds to form materials with controlled crystal symmetry, lattice parameters, stoichiometry, and dimensionality. Despite this diversity of colloidal crystal structures, only spherical nanoparticles crystallized with BCC symmetry experimentally yield single crystals with well-defined crystal habits. Here, we use low-symmetry, anisotropic nanoparticles to overcome this limitation and to access single crystals with different equilibrium Wulff shapes: a cubic habit from cube-shaped nanoparticles, a rhombic dodecahedron habit from octahedron-shaped nanoparticles, and an octahedron habit from rhombic dodecahedron-shaped nanoparticles. The observation that one can control the microscopic shape of single crystals based upon control of particle building block and crystal symmetry has important fundamental and technological implications for this novel class of colloidal matter.