Abstract
Colloidal particles with DNA "legs" that can bind reversibly to receptors on a surface can be made to 'walk' if there is a gradient in receptor concentration. We use a combination of theory and Monte Carlo simulations to explore how controllable parameters, e.g. coating density and binding strength, affect the dynamics of such colloids. We find that competition between thermodynamic and kinetic trends imply that there is an optimal value for both the binding strength and the number of "legs" for which transport is the fastest. Using available thermodynamic data on DNA binding, we indicate how directionally reversible, temperature-controlled transport of colloidal walkers can be achieved. In particular, the present results should make it possible to design a chromatographic technique that can be used to separate colloids with different DNA functionalizations.
Highlights
The study of DNA-coated colloids (DNACCs) started with two seminal papers, one by the group of Mirkin[1] and one by Alivisatos and collaborators.[2]
We study colloids coated with DNA molecules that are mostly composed of inert double-stranded DNA sequences but have a ‘sticky’ single-stranded DNA end
As a proof of principle, we show here how to design DNACC walkers with the ability to reverse their direction of motion as a function of temperature
Summary
The study of DNA-coated colloids (DNACCs) started with two seminal papers, one by the group of Mirkin[1] and one by Alivisatos and collaborators.[2]. The goal of most studies to date was to induce the selfassembly of the predesigned crystalline structure of DNACCs, by tuning the DNA-mediated colloidal interactions.[3,4,12,13,15] Yet, other promising areas where DNA programmability can be exploited are quickly emerging: a notable example is development of DNA-based motors[27,28] that move in a programmable and reproducible way. Such motors could nd applications in the step-by-step synthesis of macromolecules,[29,30,31] or in DNA-based computing.[32,33]. We indicate how our results could be used to design a chromatographic tool to separate DNACCs with different functionalizations
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