Nanoparticles have tremendous potential in energy applications, such as harvesting and storage. However, a significant difficulty at the nanoscale is controlled assembly of these materials. Nanoparticles synthesized in solution must be precisely ordered to achieve specific effects, such as plasmonic interactions. However, this can be difficult because of their small size. Here, we describe a method to assemble nanoparticles, including gold nanoparticles, magnetic nanoparticles, and semiconducting quantum dots, using three-dimensional (3D) deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) origami “hinge” constructs as a template. Templating permits nanoparticles to be assembled with precise orientations in 3D space. We evaluated the energy landscapes as a function of nanoparticle location from the hinge vertex, demonstrating a reduction of energy states.<br/><br/>In contrast to many 2D patterning approaches, these templates also have the potential to dynamically alter their shape in response to external stimuli. However, prior work primarily relies on actuation by the additional of complementary DNA strands, a slow process with actuation times of tens of minutes to hours. We investigated the potential for heat to actuate devices, showing that bulk heat delivery can easily actuate structures on the minutes time scale. Further, we explored the possibility for actuation via heat delivered by the nanoparticle itself. Gold nanoparticles can harvest optical energy from the environment converting it to heat. Local heating can melt single stranded DNA connections on the origami structure leading to actuation (opening) of the origami hinge. Thus, energy can be stored, released, and transmitted at the nanoscale, noninvasively via this approach.<br/>

Actuatable DNA origami-nanoparticle composites for energy harvesting and storage

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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