Journal
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Volume 114, Issue 24, Pages 6233-6237Publisher
NATL ACAD SCIENCES
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1700003114
Keywords
DNA nanowires; capillary forces; wrinkling; folding; instability
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Funding
- Korea Institute of Science and Technology internal project through the Disaster and Safety Management Institute - Ministry of Public Safety and Security of the Korean government [MPSS-CG-2016-02]
- National Research Foundation of Korea [NRF-2016M3C1B5906481]
- National Research Foundation of Korea (CAMM) [2014063701]
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Although DNA nanowires have proven useful as a template for fabricating functional nanomaterials and a platform for genetic analysis, their widespread use is still hindered because of limited control over the size, geometry, and alignment of the nanowires. Here, we document the capillarity-induced folding of an initially wrinkled surface and present an approach to the spontaneous formation of aligned DNA nanowires using a template whose surface morphology dynamically changes in response to liquid. In particular, we exploit the familiar wrinkling phenomenon that results from compression of a thin skin on a soft substrate. Once a droplet of liquid solution containing DNA molecules is placed on the wrinkled surface, the liquid from the droplet enters certain wrinkled channels. The capillary forces deform wrinkles containing liquid into sharp folds, whereas the neighboring empty wrinkles are stretched out. In this way, we obtain a periodic array of folded channels that contain liquid solution with DNA molecules. Such an approach serves as a template for the fabrication of arrays of straight or wrinkled DNA nanowires, where their characteristic scales are robustly tunable with the physical properties of liquid and the mechanical and geometrical properties of the elastic system.
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