Fig. 1: Formation of microcrystals with Wulff shapes.

a Crystallization of cubic microcrystals (a = b = c) from R-octa DOFs through a slow annealing process. Middle scheme: DNA sequences of sticky ends in the R-octa system. Bottom right panel: representative TEM image of a bare microcrystal. b Schematic illustration of the silica-encapsulation strategy for DNA microcrystals. The process is realized through the involvement of TMAPS (red spheres) and TEOS (black spheres), see details in Methods section. c Model (left) and representative SEM image (right) of an encapsulated microcrystal with the same orientation. d Crystallization of cuboid microcrystals (a = b < c) from E-octa DOFs through a slow annealing procedure. Middle scheme: DNA sequences of sticky ends in the E-octa system. Bottom left panel: representative TEM image of a bare microcrystal. e Representative SEM image (left) and model (right) of an encapsulated microcrystal with a cuboid shape. Scale bars: 2 μm. Note that: the number of monomers drawn in the conceptual drawing in (a and d) are much less than real condition to highlight the linking mode between monomers.