DNA-based programming of quantum dot valency, self-assembly and luminescence

University of Toronto researchers have derived inspiration from the photosynthetic apparatus in plants to engineer a new generation of nanomaterials that control and direct the energy absorbed from light.

This work enables a strategy to build higher-order structures, or complexes out of multiple different types of quantum dots.

Nature Nanotechnology – DNA-based programming of quantum dot valency, self-assembly and luminescence

The electronic and optical properties of colloidal quantum dots, including the wavelengths of light that they can absorb and emit, depend on the size of the quantum dots. These properties have been exploited in a number of applications including optical detection solar energy harvesting and biological research. Here, we report the self-assembly of quantum dot complexes using cadmium telluride nanocrystals capped with specific sequences of DNA. Quantum dots with between one and five DNA-based binding sites are synthesized and then used as building blocks to create a variety of rationally designed assemblies, including cross-shaped complexes containing three different types of dots. The structure of the complexes is confirmed with transmission electron microscopy, and photophysical studies are used to quantify energy transfer among the constituent components. Through changes in pH, the conformation of the complexes can also be reversibly switched, turning on and off the transfer of energy between the constituent quantum dots.

Traditional antennas increase the amount of an electromagnetic wave – such as a radio frequency – that is absorbed, and then funnel that energy to a circuit. The U of T nanoantennas instead increased the amount of light that is absorbed and funneled it to a single site within their molecule-like complexes. This concept is already used in nature in light harvesting antennas, constituents of leaves that make photosynthesis efficient. “Like the antennas in radios and mobile phones, our complexes captured dispersed energy and concentrated it to a desired location. Like the light harvesting antennas in the leaves of a tree, our complexes do so using wavelengths found in sunlight,” explained Sargent.

“Professors Kelley and Sargent have invented a novel class of materials with entirely new properties. Their insight and innovative research demonstrates why the University of Toronto leads in the field of nanotechnology,” said Professor Henry Mann, Dean of the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy.

“This is a terrific piece of work that demonstrates our growing ability to assemble precise structures, to tailor their properties, and to build in the capability to control these properties using external stimuli,” noted Paul S. Weiss, Fred Kavli Chair in NanoSystems Sciences at UCLA and Director of the California NanoSystems Institute.

Kelley explained that the concept published in today’s Nature Nanotechnology paper is a broad one that goes beyond light antennas alone.

“What this work shows is that our capacity to manipulate materials at the nanoscale is limited only by human imagination. If semiconductor quantum dots are artificial atoms, then we have rationally synthesized artificial molecules from these versatile building blocks.”

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U of Toronto Engineers, led by Professor Ted Sargent, report the first efficient tandem solar cell based on colloidal quantum dots (CQD). “The U of T device is a stack of two light-absorbing layers – one tuned to capture the sun’s visible rays, the other engineered to harvest the half of the sun’s power that lies in the infrared,” said lead coauthor Dr. Xihua Wang.

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