The DNA, which is attached to the tiny gold spheres, and different DNA sequences were used to create different structures of crystal. Add new comment. The nanoparticles form reversibly during heating and cooling cycles, they said. The Brookhaven researchers created crystals with an open structure that can be tuned by temperature. If future metamaterial engineer requires specific nanoparticle composition, size, array structure and spacing, this DNA method is more likely to be able to build it, compared to the earlier method.

two teams of researchers have harnessed DNAs unique properties to build novel threedimensional 3D nanostructures, with potential applications in the electronic devices and medical technologies of the future.We are closer to the dream of learning, as nanoscientists, how to break everything down into fundamental building blocks...and reassembling them into whatever structure we want, said materials scientist, and leader of one of the teams, Chad Mirkin of Northwestern University in Evanston, USA. Though DNA has been used to build flat nanostructures before, this is the first time it has been achieved in three dimensions.

SelfassemblingResearchers have long been interested in building materials which contain ordered, 3D arrays of nanoparticles. This overhanging DNA then sought out complementary strand on another particle, forming tight bond based on the traditional DNA base pairing rules. According to John Crocker, assistant professor of innovation at the University of Pennsylvania, the idea is that these metamaterials will have unique electronic and optical properties to enable higher efficiency solar cells and lasers, as well as superresolution microscopes and even coatings that can render objects invisible.

In principle, this decouples assembly from particle chemistry, said Crocker, whose commentary on the new technique is also found in Nature. The Brookhaven researchers created crystals with an open structure that can be tuned by temperature. Mirkin and his coworkers built their crystals by attaching single strands of complementary DNA to gold particles, while Mirkins team used double stranded DNA with one strand longer than the other. The technique is reported in the British journal Nature. Strands of artificial DNA were attached to the surfaces of the nanoparticles, directs the placement of each nanoparticle within larger array, said Mirkin.

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