Design of Stimuli-Responsive Self-assembly of Liquid Crystal Droplets through DNA Hybridization

Self-assembly is a promising method for spontaneously forming highly ordered structures or patterns from simple components. Notably, conventional self-assembly using isotropic colloidal building blocks has limited ability to modify the assembled structure in response to environmental changes once established. In this work, we propose stimuli-responsive liquid crystal (LC) droplets as unit building blocks, with their assembly guided by the hybridization of single-stranded DNA (ssDNA). LC droplets are well-known for exhibiting rapid and reversible internal molecular orientation transitions when exposed to various physical and chemical stimuli. We demonstrate that the interaction between LC droplets can be controlled in a desired direction, and that the self-assembled structure can be altered by reconfiguring the LC droplets. We expect that our self-assembly approach will provide a novel strategy for creating dynamic assembled structures for responsive materials. This advancement will also facilitate the establishment of hierarchical and tailorable structures suitable for soft and smart photonic materials.