Self-Assembled DNA-Inorganic Nanoparticle Structures - DNA Nanotechnology: From Structure to Function - page 179

Chapter 9
Self-Assembled DNA-Inorganic Nanoparticle
Structures

Zhong Chen, Xiang Lan, and Qiangbin Wang

Abstract In this chaper, we decribe the structures of DNA-based assembly of
inorganic nanoparticle in one, two, and three dimensions. Smart DNA linker, DNA
motifs, and DNA origami were introduced to assembled nanoparticle, respectively.
We also show our insights for the application of DNA-inorganic nanoparticle
structures in the future.

Keywords DNA motifs • DNA origami • Self-assembly • Nanoparticle

9.1 Introduction

Since nanoparticles (NPs) became a new part of chemistry as “artificial atoms” in
the 1990s, it could provide great technological breakthroughs in nanoelectronics,
diagnostic, or sensing devices if those NPs assembly can be well controlled
[ 1 ]. Until now, it remains a great challenge to organize nanoparticles from one
dimension (1-D) to two dimensions (2-D), and three dimensions to study the
electronic and optical coupling between the particles and apply them for diagnostic
or devices. Several techniques have been developed to assemble metal NPs into
1-, 2-, and 3-D nanostructures, ranging from Langmuir-Blodgett techniques [ 2 ],
molecular self-assembly via covalent linkage and electrostatic coupling [ 3 ], and
to the deposition within or at pre-structured surfaces [ 4 ]. However, most of these
methods suffer from a lack of recognition and binding specificity. So, it is very
important to seek out a superb way to achieve precise assembly of NPs. In the
past decades, the specific base-pairing interaction has been widely exploited since
detailed structure of DNA was revealed by Watson and Crick in 1953 [ 5 ]. Recently,

Z. Chen • X. Lan • Q. Wang ( )
Division of Nanobiomedicine, Suzhou Institute of Nano-Tech and Nano-Bionics,
Chinese Academy of Sciences, Suzhou 215123, China
e-mail: [e-mail]