We use computer simulations and experiments to study the interactions between nanoparticles (NPs) grafted with self-complementary DNA strands. Each strand ends with a sticky palindromic single-stranded sequence, allowing it to associate equally favorably with strands grafted on the same particle or on different NPs. Surprisingly we find an attractive interaction between a pair of NPs, and we demonstrate that at low temperature it arises purely from a combinatorial-entropy contribution. We evaluate theoretically and verify numerically this entropic contribution originating from the number of distinct bonding patterns associated with intra- and interparticle binding. This entropic attraction becomes more favorable with decreasing inter-NP distance because more sticky ends can participate in making this choice.
Combinatorial-Entropy-Driven Aggregation in {DNA}-Grafted Nanoparticles / Sciortino, Francesco; Zhang, Yugang; Gang, Oleg; Kumar, Sanat K.. - In: ACS NANO. - ISSN 1936-0851. - 14:5(2020), pp. 5628-5635. [10.1021/acsnano.9b10123]
Combinatorial-Entropy-Driven Aggregation in {DNA}-Grafted Nanoparticles
Francesco Sciortino;
2020
Abstract
We use computer simulations and experiments to study the interactions between nanoparticles (NPs) grafted with self-complementary DNA strands. Each strand ends with a sticky palindromic single-stranded sequence, allowing it to associate equally favorably with strands grafted on the same particle or on different NPs. Surprisingly we find an attractive interaction between a pair of NPs, and we demonstrate that at low temperature it arises purely from a combinatorial-entropy contribution. We evaluate theoretically and verify numerically this entropic contribution originating from the number of distinct bonding patterns associated with intra- and interparticle binding. This entropic attraction becomes more favorable with decreasing inter-NP distance because more sticky ends can participate in making this choice.File | Dimensione | Formato | |
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