The Center for Excitonics Seminar Series
Oleg Gang
Center for Functional Nanomaterials, Brookhaven National Laboratory
In the last decade nanoscale objects emerged as a novel type of matter with unique functional properties and a plethora of prospective applications. Although a broad range of nano-synthesis methods has been developed, our abilities to organize these components in arbitrarily designed architectures in space and time are still quite limited. In this regard, an incorporation of biomolecules into a nano-object design provides a unique opportunity to establish highly selective and reversible interactions between components of nano-systems. Such bio-encoding can provide a syntax of inter-particle interactions. Consequently, programming of complex and dynamically tunable systems via self-assembly becomes conceptually feasible: biomolecules act as site-specific scaffolds, smart assembly guides and reconfigurable structural elements. I will discuss our advances in addressing this problem using the DNA platform, in which a high degree of addressability of nucleic acids is used to direct the formation of structures from nanoscale synthetic components. Our work explores the leading parameters and principles of programmable organization of inorganic nano-components into well-defined three-dimensional superlattices, two-dimensional membranes and finite-sized clusters. Our progress on the assembly of structures with designed lattice symmetries and clusters with predetermined architectures will be discussed. The realizations of switchable and tunable systems, as well as the relevance of these approaches to optical applications will be also demonstrated. Research is supported by the U.S. DOE Office of Science and Office of Basic Energy Sciences under contract No. DE-AC-02–98CH10886.
Bio:
Oleg Gang received his M.Sc. in 1994 and his Ph.D. in 2000, both from Bar-Ilan University, Israel. He was a Postdoctoral Rothschild Fellow at Harvard University from 2000 — 2002 and a Postdoctoral Goldhaber Fellow at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) from 2002–2004. In 2004, he worked as Assistant Scientist at the Center for Functional Nanomaterials (CFN) at BNL, and in 2006 he became an Associate Scientist at CFN. He currently is Leader for Soft Matter and Bio-Nanomaterials Theme in CFN and is Adjunct Professor of Chemistry at SUNY, Stony Brook, NY. His research focuses on assembly of clusters and extended arrays (2D and 3D) from nanoscale components of multiple types driven by DNA recognition, chain effects and geometrical factors. He and his team’s work explores how bioencoding of nanoparticle can guide the formation of well-defined structures, how the morphology of those self-organized structures can be dynamically regulated, and what factors govern system’s phase behavior.
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