Supramolecular hybrids
Supramolecular DNA-Triarylamine hybrids: towards self-assembled origami-based nanocircuits
USIAS Fellow : Emilie Moulin
Post-doc: Junjun Tan
A long-lasting objective in nanotechnology is oriented towards the bottom up fabrication of electronic circuits. To reach this goal, DNA molecules have been foreseen as promising tools since the late 90's. However, their limited and poorly reproducible electronic conductivity has weakened this approach. Several alternative strategies have been proposed to create conducting DNA hybrids with coated metals, semiconductors, and films of conductive polymers, but those lack selectivity and addressability, which are key parameters to access nanocircuits.
To overcome these issues, our project aims at integrating highly conductive supramolecular nanowires made of triarylamine molecules attached to a DNA template. This innovative methodology is expected to lead unique structural and functional features (high conductivity, soft mechanical properties, sequence specificity, addressability in 2D and 3D). By combining molecular chemical design and self-assembly principles, we hope to encode nanocircuits thanks to the self-organization of this new type of hybrid materials. Overall, this project shall impact the nascent field of biosupramolecular electronics.