Editor's Summary
31 January 2008
DNA rules
The idea that DNA base pairing could direct the crystallization of useful materials is a tempting one for nanotechnologists. Now — over ten years after it was first shown that DNA attached to nanoparticles can influence their assembly — two groups have put this concept into practice. Park et al. demonstrate that the DNA molecules attached to gold nanoparticles, and DNA molecules used to link them, can be selected to ensure that the nanoparticles self-assemble into either face-centred cubic or body-centred cubic crystals. The cover graphic, by Cole Krumbholz, is a close-up of the latter. Nykypanchuk et al. identify the requirements for DNA design and the crystallization conditions that allow the reversible formation of body-centred cubic crystals, with nanoparticles occupying just a few percent of a lattice volume. As discussed in News & Views, these developments might make it possible to create ordered and tunable 3D nanoscale architectures relevant for photonic and magnetic applications, biomedical sensing, and information or energy storage.
News and Views: Nanomaterials: Golden handshake
Three-dimensional nanoparticle arrays are likely to be the foundation of future optical and electronic materials. A promising way to assemble them is through the transient pairings of complementary DNA strands.
John C. Crocker
doi:10.1038/451528a
Letter: DNA-guided crystallization of colloidal nanoparticles
Dmytro Nykypanchuk, Mathew M. Maye, Daniel van der Lelie & Oleg Gang
doi:10.1038/nature06560
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (1,301K) | Supplementary information
Letter: DNA-programmable nanoparticle crystallization
Sung Yong Park, Abigail K. R. Lytton-Jean, Byeongdu Lee, Steven Weigand, George C. Schatz & Chad A. Mirkin
doi:10.1038/nature06508
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (829K) | Supplementary information
