With this project, we aim at performing an experimental study of interpenetrating netwokes composed of DNA nanostars (NSs) ¿ a colloidal analogue of patchy particles ¿, which have been extensively used in our group in the last years. We plan to design tetravalent DNA nanostars of two different types (A and B), such that A binds with A and B binds with B. We aim at investigating the formation of intertwisted A and B networks with (tunable) nanometric mesh size. By playing with the design of the sticky base sequences we will control the temperature range at which the two networks forms, to observe both the concurrent formation of the two lattices as well as the formation of one network in an already formed one. We will complement the experimental results with numerical simulation of the network formation process.
