EVANSTON, Ill., Oct. 14 (UPI) -- U.S. scientists say they've taken a page from nature's book and learned how to build crystalline materials from nanoparticles and DNA.
In nature, atoms chemically bond to make crystalline materials such as diamonds, silicon and even table salt, with the properties of the crystals determined by the type and arrangement of atoms within the crystalline lattice.
Now researchers at Northwestern University in Illinois say they've gone nature one better by building crystalline materials from nanoparticles and DNA, using nanoparticles as "atoms" and DNA as "bonds" to build completely new structures that have no naturally occurring mineral counterpart.
The technique promises the possibility of creating new materials useful in catalysis, electronics, optics, biomedicine and energy generation, storage and conversion technologies, a Northwestern release said Friday.
"Using these new design rules and nanoparticles as 'artificial atoms,' we have developed modes of controlled crystallization that are, in many respects, more powerful than the way nature and chemists make crystalline materials from atoms," researcher Chad A. Mirkin said.
"By controlling the size, shape, type and location of nanoparticles within a given lattice, we can make completely new materials and arrangements of particles, not just what nature dictates."
