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Nanomaterials

Golden handshake

Nature volume 451, pages 528–529 (2008)Cite this article

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.

One of the staple concepts of nanotechnology is that of 'growing' useful materials or devices by coaxing a random mixture of microscopic parts to assemble spontaneously into a desired structure. Versatile self-assembly schemes have been demonstrated that use DNA as the primary building material1. In this issue, two research teams, one led by Oleg Gang (Nykypanchuk et al., page 549)2 and the other by Chad Mirkin (Park et al., page 553)3, recount how they have built on the successes with DNA to aid the self-assembly of gold nanoparticles. Their technique should also work for other varieties of technologically exciting nanoparticles.

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Figure 1: Self-assembly through DNA strands.

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  1. John C. Crocker is in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Pennsylvania, 220 South 33rd Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104, USA. jcrocker@seas.upenn.edu,

    John C. Crocker

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  1. John C. Crocker
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Crocker, J. Golden handshake. Nature 451, 528–529 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/451528a

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