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Thermally reversible pattern formation in arrays of molecular rotors.

Publication ,  Journal Article
DeLuca, M; Pfeifer, WG; Randoing, B; Huang, C-M; Poirier, MG; Castro, CE; Arya, G
Published in: Nanoscale
May 2023

Control over the mesoscale to microscale patterning of materials is of great interest to the soft matter community. Inspired by DNA origami rotors, we introduce a 2D nearest-neighbor lattice of spinning rotors that exhibit discrete orientational states and interactions with their neighbors. Monte Carlo simulations of rotor lattices reveal that they exhibit a variety of interesting ordering behaviors and morphologies that can be modulated through rotor design parameters. The rotor arrays exhibit diverse patterns including closed loops, radiating loops, and bricklayer structures in their ordered states. They exhibit specific heat peaks at very low temperatures for small system sizes, and some systems exhibit multiple order-disorder transitions depending on inter-rotor interaction design. We devise an energy-based order parameter and show via umbrella sampling and histogram reweighting that this order parameter captures well the order-disorder transitions occurring in these systems. We fabricate real DNA origami rotors which themselves can order via programmable DNA base-pairing interactions and demonstrate both ordered and disordered phases, illustrating how rotor lattices may be realized experimentally and used for responsive organization. This work establishes the feasibility of realizing structural nanomaterials that exhibit locally mediated microscale patterns which could have applications in sensing and precision surface patterning.

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Published In

Nanoscale

DOI

EISSN

2040-3372

ISSN

2040-3364

Publication Date

May 2023

Volume

15

Issue

18

Start / End Page

8356 / 8365

Related Subject Headings

  • Nanoscience & Nanotechnology
  • 51 Physical sciences
  • 40 Engineering
  • 34 Chemical sciences
  • 10 Technology
  • 03 Chemical Sciences
  • 02 Physical Sciences
 

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DeLuca, M., Pfeifer, W. G., Randoing, B., Huang, C.-M., Poirier, M. G., Castro, C. E., & Arya, G. (2023). Thermally reversible pattern formation in arrays of molecular rotors. Nanoscale, 15(18), 8356–8365. https://doi.org/10.1039/d2nr05813h
DeLuca, Marcello, Wolfgang G. Pfeifer, Benjamin Randoing, Chao-Min Huang, Michael G. Poirier, Carlos E. Castro, and Gaurav Arya. “Thermally reversible pattern formation in arrays of molecular rotors.Nanoscale 15, no. 18 (May 2023): 8356–65. https://doi.org/10.1039/d2nr05813h.
DeLuca M, Pfeifer WG, Randoing B, Huang C-M, Poirier MG, Castro CE, et al. Thermally reversible pattern formation in arrays of molecular rotors. Nanoscale. 2023 May;15(18):8356–65.
DeLuca, Marcello, et al. “Thermally reversible pattern formation in arrays of molecular rotors.Nanoscale, vol. 15, no. 18, May 2023, pp. 8356–65. Epmc, doi:10.1039/d2nr05813h.
DeLuca M, Pfeifer WG, Randoing B, Huang C-M, Poirier MG, Castro CE, Arya G. Thermally reversible pattern formation in arrays of molecular rotors. Nanoscale. 2023 May;15(18):8356–8365.
Journal cover image

Published In

Nanoscale

DOI

EISSN

2040-3372

ISSN

2040-3364

Publication Date

May 2023

Volume

15

Issue

18

Start / End Page

8356 / 8365

Related Subject Headings

  • Nanoscience & Nanotechnology
  • 51 Physical sciences
  • 40 Engineering
  • 34 Chemical sciences
  • 10 Technology
  • 03 Chemical Sciences
  • 02 Physical Sciences