Submitted by Alexandra Brumberg / Drexel University on Sun, 03/08/2026 - 23:05
Additional Authors
Michelle Personick / University of Virginia
My Notes
Categories
Prerequisites
General Chemistry
Corequisites
No Corequisites
Course Level
Upper Division/Graduate
Topics Covered
Acid-base chemistry
Chemical literature
Diffraction
Intermolecular interactions
Materials chemistry
Nanoscience
Solids & solid state chemistry
Thermodynamics
Subdiscipline
Nanochemistry
Solid State and Materials Chemistry
Description

This literature discussion was created for the ACS National Award Winners 2026 collection for Prof. Chad Mirkin, the recipient of the 2026 ACS Award in the Chemistry of Materials for “establishing the field of colloidal crystal engineering with DNA.” This LO is based on the article, "A General Approach to DNA-Programmable Atom Equivalents" published in Nature Materials, 2013, 12, 741.

Attachment Size
LD_Mirkin_PAEs_v2.docx 25 KB
Learning Goals

After reading the article and answering the discussion questions, students should be able to: 

  • Describe what a programmable atom equivalent is. 
  • Explain how DNA programmable assembly works. 
  • Explain the thermodynamics of crystal lattice formation. 
  • Identify the factors that lead to formation of different binary lattice types. 
Related activities
Looking at Solid State Structures
Solid State Structures tutorial
Metal and Ionic Lattices Guided Inquiry Worksheet
Web Resources
https://www.nature.com/articles/nmat3647
Creative Commons License
Attribution, Non-Commercial, Share Alike CC BY-NC-SA