Gold nanocrystals with DNA-directed morphologies

Xingyi Ma, June Huh, Wounjhang Park, Luke P. Lee, Young Jik Kwon, Sang Jun Sim

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

56 Scopus citations

Abstract

Precise control over the structure of metal nanomaterials is important for developing advanced nanobiotechnology. Assembly methods of nanoparticles into structured blocks have been widely demonstrated recently. However, synthesis of nanocrystals with controlled, three-dimensional structures remains challenging. Here we show a directed crystallization of gold by a single DNA molecular regulator in a sequence-independent manner and its applications in three-dimensional topological controls of crystalline nanostructures. We anchor DNA onto gold nanoseed with various alignments to form gold nanocrystals with defined topologies. Some topologies are asymmetric including pushpin-, star-and biconcave disk-like structures, as well as more complex jellyfish-and flower-like structures. The approach of employing DNA enables the solution-based synthesis of nanocrystals with controlled, three-dimensional structures in a desired direction, and expands the current tools available for designing and synthesizing feature-rich nanomaterials for future translational biotechnology.

Original languageEnglish
Article number12873
JournalNature Communications
Volume7
DOIs
StatePublished - 16 Sep 2016

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 The Author(s).

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