DNA-based design paves the way for lighter and thinner devices

Synthetic DNA could be the answer to lighter and thinner electronic displays.

Researchers at Northwestern University have developed new design principles for making photonic crystals such as those commonly used on computer screens, televisions and smartphones. People watch a laptop screen every day, but not many people understand what they are made of and why, "George Schatz, professor of chemistry at Northwestern, said in a statement

" A component of the screen is the reflector, a mirror-like device that directs the light emitted by the LCD screen to the viewer, "he continued." These reflectors are made of much thicker laminated polymers and heavier than our crystals. "

The team's unique approach not only replaces dull polymers with lots of gold nanocrystals, but also spaces them, leaving more of the same. space for air The result, according to Northwestern, is a lighter, more compact structure, "precisely designed and reconfigurable that is still highly reflective."

The complete results were published online this week in the Proceedings from the National L & # 39; a Science Cadet (PNAS)

Co-author Chad Mirkin, director of the Northwestern International Institute of Nanotechnology, has invented ways to link synthetic DNA to gold nanoparticles to produce nanoparticles. materials not found in nature. to make 3D crystal structures from particles bound by DNA.

But it took them another 10 years to recognize the potential of their laboratory-grown lattices in everyday life.

"Through computer modeling, we accidentally realized that crystalline materials containing gold nanoparticles had properties that we had missed earlier in the work," said Schatz

. light devices like the air. But this new method could lead to a myriad of types of functional "designer" materials using self-badembly by the DNA.

"The generality of the approach and the design rules are quite extraordinary and independent of the composition of the particles. "It takes what we originally designed in the 1990s to new heights."

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