FURI | Spring 2025

Using Adenine-Based Copolymers to Realize Kinetic Single Crystals from DNA Nanoparticles

Water splitting has potential for advancing a hydrogen economy, reducing reliance on fossil fuels. One promising approach to water splitting is photocatalysis, which can be enhanced with anisotropic crystal structures. These anisotropic crystals are traditionally more difficult to synthesize, but a possible solution is to use copolymers that function as “capping agents,” potentially stabilizing the high-energy facets of DNA-functionalized nanoparticle assemblies and facilitating the formation of anisotropic structures. This work investigates adenine-based copolymers for this purpose. Adenine acrylate monomer is synthesized, then used for photocontrolled copolymerization with various other monomers and different polymerization systems to optimize purity and water solubility.