DNA-directed self-assembly of gold nanoparticles into binary and ternary nanostructures

Abstract

The assembly and characterization of gold nanoparticle-based binary and ternary structures are reported. Two strategies were used to assemble gold nanoparticles into ordered nanoscale architectures: in strategy 1, gold nanoparticles were functionalized with single-strand DNA (ssDNA) first, and then hybridized with complementary ssDNA-labelled nanoparticles to assemble designed architectures. In strategy 2, the designed architectures were constructed through hybridization between complementary ssDNA first, then by assembling gold nanoparticles to the scaffolding through gold–sulfur bonds. Both TEM measurements and agarose gel electrophoresis confirmed that the latter strategy is more efficient in generating the designed nanostructures. (Some figures in this article are in colour only in the electronic version)