Disorder in DNA-linked gold nanoparticle assemblies

Phys Rev Lett. 2005 Jul 22;95(4):046101. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.95.046101. Epub 2005 Jul 21.

Abstract

We report experimental observations on the effect of disorder on the phase behavior of DNA-linked nanoparticle assemblies. Variation in DNA linker lengths results in different melting temperatures of the DNA-linked nanoparticle assemblies. We observed an unusual trend of a nonmonotonic "zigzag" pattern in the melting temperature as a function of DNA linker length. Linker DNA resulting in unequal DNA duplex lengths introduces disorder and lowers the melting temperature of the nanoparticle system. Comparison with free DNA thermodynamics shows that such an anomalous zigzag pattern does not exist for free DNA duplex melting, which suggests that the disorder introduced by unequal DNA duplex lengths results in this unusual collective behavior of DNA-linked nanoparticle assemblies.

MeSH terms

  • Base Sequence
  • DNA / chemistry*
  • DNA Probes / chemistry
  • Gold / chemistry*
  • Nanostructures / chemistry*
  • Thermodynamics

Substances

  • DNA Probes
  • Gold
  • DNA