Published in

IOP Publishing, Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter, 1(29), p. 014006, 2016

DOI: 10.1088/0953-8984/29/1/014006

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Self-assembly of two-dimensional binary quasicrystals: A possible route to a DNA quasicrystal

Journal article published in 2016 by Aleks Reinhardt, Js Schreck, Flavio Romano, Jpk Doye ORCID
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

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Abstract

We use Monte Carlo simulations and free-energy techniques to show that binary solutions of penta- and hexavalent two-dimensional patchy particles can form thermodynamically stable quasicrystals even at very narrow patch widths, provided their patch interactions are chosen in an appropriate way. Such patchy particles can be thought of as a coarse-grained representation of DNA multi-arm 'star' motifs, which can be chosen to bond with one another very specifically by tuning the DNA sequences of the protruding arms. We explore several possible design strategies and conclude that DNA star tiles that are designed to interact with one another in a specific but not overly constrained way could potentially be used to construct soft quasicrystals in experiment. We verify that such star tiles can form stable dodecagonal motifs using oxDNA, a realistic coarse-grained model of DNA. ; Other ; This work was supported by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (Grants EP/I001352/1, EP/J019445/1).