Abstract
The organized assembly of particles into superstructures is typically governed by specific molecular interactions or external directing factors associated with the particle building blocks, both of which are particle-dependent. These superstructures are of interest to a variety of fields because of their distinct mechanical, electronic, magnetic and optical properties. Here, we establish a facile route to a diverse range of superstructures based on the polyphenol surface-functionalization of micro- and nanoparticles, nanowires, nanosheets, nanocubes and even cells. This strategy can be used to access a large number of modularly assembled superstructures, including core–satellite, hollow and hierarchically organized supraparticles. Colloidal-probe atomic force microscopy and molecular dynamics simulations provide detailed insights into the role of surface functionalization and how this facilitates superstructure construction. Our work provides a platform for the rapid generation of superstructured assemblies across a wide range of length scales, from nanometres to centimetres.
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Acknowledgements
This research was conducted and funded by the Australian Research Council (ARC) Centre of Excellence in Convergent Bio-Nano Science and Technology (project number CE140100036). This work was also supported by the ARC under the Australian Laureate Fellowship (F.C., FL120100030) and Discovery Project (F.C., DP130101846) schemes. J.G. is grateful for a scholarship under the Chinese government award for outstanding self-financed students abroad by the China Scholarship Council (CSC). This work was performed in part at the Materials Characterisation and Fabrication Platform (MCFP) at the University of Melbourne and the Victorian Node of the Australian National Fabrication Facility (ANFF). We acknowledge F. Tian, Q. Dai, D. Song, X. Chen, M. Björnmalm, M. Faria, Q. Besford and E. Hirotaka for assistance with experiments. We thank X. Wang, X. Liao and B. Shi for providing the skin collagen matrix and polyphenol extracts. We also thank M. Penna and P. Charchar for useful discussions. A.J.C. and I.Y. acknowledge the generous allocation of high-performance computational resources from the Australian National Computational Infrastructure (NCI), the Western Australian computational facility (iVEC), the Victorian Partnership for Advanced Computing (VPAC), and the Victorian Life Sciences Computational Initiative (VLSCI).
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J.G. and F.C. conceived the ideas. B.L.T. and R.R.D. conducted the AFM experiments. A.J.C. and I.Y. conceived the modelling approach and performed the MD simulations and the corresponding data analysis. Y.D. performed the luminescence measurements. J.J.R., W.Z., M.H., Y.J. and J.C. assisted with the cell experiments and contributed to the general methodology. J.G., B.L.T., A.J.C., I.Y., J.J.R., J.C. and F.C. drafted the manuscript. All authors discussed the results and commented on the manuscript.
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Guo, J., Tardy, B., Christofferson, A. et al. Modular assembly of superstructures from polyphenol-functionalized building blocks. Nature Nanotech 11, 1105–1111 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2016.172
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2016.172
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