Method for organizing individual molecules on a patterned substrate and structures assembled thereby

A structure comprising:

• a substrate having a patterned surface of one or more binding sites;
• and
• a molecular shape made by a polynucleotide platform, the molecular shape being bound to one of the one or more binding sites,
• wherein the molecular shape comprises a plurality of faces comprising a binding face and one or more non-binding faces,
• wherein the one or more binding sites have a higher binding affinity for the binding face than for the one or more non-binding faces.

A method for orienting molecular shapes on a substrate, the method comprising:

• patterning a surface of a substrate with one or more binding sites and a nonbinding background to form a patterned surface, each binding site of the one or more binding sites having:
• a shape that is rotationally asymmetric around an axis perpendicular to the surface of the substrate;
• and
• an independently-defined first orientation direction along the plane of the surface and relative to the shape;
• and
• applying a solution comprising a plurality of molecular shapes to the patterned surface of the substrate, the molecular shapes being generated using a polynucleotide platform, each of the molecular shapes having:
• a binding face that has high binding affinity for the one or more binding sites;
• a nonbinding face that has low binding affinity for the one or more binding sites;
• a shape of the binding face matching to the shape of the one or more binding sites;
• and
• a second orientation direction defined relative to the shape of the molecular shapes, each of the molecular shapes having a higher binding affinity for the one or more binding sites with the second orientation direction aligned with the first orientation direction.