Rigidity dependent formation process of DNA supramolecular hydrogel

A DNA building block with tunable rigidity was constructed and the hydrogel formation process has been investigated accordingly. The high rigidity has been demonstrated to facilitate the fast gelation. Different pathways were revealed between the rigid and flexible building block and a cyclized dimer intermediate has been proposed. The energy barrier of the ring open process has also been proved to play a fundamental role in determining the gelation kinetics. Furthermore, the hydrogel molecular network rigidity was also tuned in situ through strand displacement, which also support the kinetic control mechanism in the formation process of DNA hydrogel.