Spatial ordering and abnormal optical activity of DNA liquid-crystalline dispersion particles

Review From DNA liquid crystals to “rigid” DNA liquid-crystalline particles (DNA nanoconstructions)

The investigation of new DNA-based materials is an emerging area in material science as well as in physics, biosensorics, biotechnology, bionanotechnology. This review shows the state of the art in the fundamental studies of liquid crystals and liquid-crystalline dispersions of DNA molecules obtained as a result of their phase exclusion from water-salt polymer-containing solutions. The results ...

Gold Nanoparticle Clusters in Quasinematic Layers of Liquid-Crystalline Dispersion Particles of Double-Stranded Nucleic Acids

The interaction between gold nanoparticles and particles of cholesteric liquid-crystalline dispersions formed by double-stranded DNA and poly(I)×poly(C) molecules is considered. It is shown that small-sized (~ 2 nm) gold nanoparticles induce two different structural processes. First, they facilitate the reorganization of the spatial cholesteric structure of the particles into a nematic one. Thi...

Liquid Crystalline Gelation of DNA

Liquid Crystalline Phases of DNA

The DNA molecule is the support of the genetic information. It is a right-handed double helix, 22 angstrom in diameter, and 50 nm in the persistence length. The two strands of the helix are complementary in their nucleotide sequence with about 10 nucleotide pairs per helical turn. DNA is a long and strongly charged heteropolymer. It bears on average one elementary negative charge per each 0.17 ...

Spontaneous dispersion of particles on liquid surfaces.

When small particles (e.g., flour, pollen, etc.) come in contact with a liquid surface, they immediately disperse. The dispersion can occur so quickly that it appears explosive, especially for small particles on the surface of mobile liquids like water. This explosive dispersion is the consequence of capillary force pulling particles into the interface causing them to accelerate to a relatively...