DNA nanostructures provide a powerful platform for the programmable assembly of nanomaterials. Here this approach is extended to synthesize rod-like gold nanoparticles in a full DNA controlled manner. The approach is based on DNA molds containing elongated cavities. Gold is deposited inside the molds using a seeded-growth procedure. By carefully exploring the growth parameters it is shown that gold nanostructures with aspect ratios of up to 7 can be grown from single seeds. The highly anisotropic growth is in this case controlled only by the rather soft and porous DNA walls. The optimized seeded growth procedure provides a robust and simple routine to achieve continuous gold nanostructures using DNA templating.
Keywords: DNA origami; bottom-up; gold nanoparticles; metallization; nanoelectronics.
© 2020 The Authors. Published by Wiley-VCH GmbH.