Transient Multistate Nanoparticle Assemblies Enabled by Orthogonal Dissipative Assembly Pathways
Abstract
Dissipative assembly enables fabricating reconfigurable and transient nanostructures using chemical reactions that transiently activate nanoscale building blocks to self-assemble. This approach enables realizing transient, responsive functional materials that autonomously respond to specific chemical stimuli. Despite the prevalence of dissipative assembly in natural biological systems, e.g. assembly of microtubules in cells, the complex dynamics of these systems are poorly understood, limiting discovery of synthetic systems that reproduce dissipative assembly behavior in biological systems. The proposed work will address several exigent challenges in realizing nanoparticle systems that exhibit dissipative assembly. The objectives of the proposal are to (1) establish design rules for accelerating discovery and rational design of dissipative nanoparticle assembly systems, (2) determine assembly and disassembly mechanisms using direct microscopic visualization of dissipative nanoparticle assembly, (3) demonstrate a fundamentally new approach for dissipative nanoparticle assembly using chemically degradable polymers, and (4) demonstrate multistate dissipative assembly using nanoparticles with patchy surface chemistry. Our approach involves a combined theoretical and experimental approach utilizing mathematical modeling of coupled fuel-ligand and nanoparticle assembly kinetics, direct microscopic visualization with liquid cell transmission electron microscopy, and precision synthesis of chemically patchy nanoparticles that have tailored responses to different chemical fuels. Overall, completion of the proposed work is expected to enable rational design of multistate dissipative nanoparticle assembly systems with Òon/offÓ and sense and respond functionality, which possess exquisite control over the spatial arrangement of building blocks and their lifetime.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Jul 09, 2020
- Source ID
- W911NF2010169
Entities
People
- Taylor J Woehl
Organizations
- Army Contracting Command
- United States Army
- University of Maryland