DNA-origami-directed self-assembly of discrete silver-nanoparticle architectures.

We report a bottom-up method for the fabrication of discrete, well-ordered AgNP nanoarchitectures on self-assembled DNA origami structures of triangular shape by using AgNPs (20 nm in diameter) conjugated with chimeric phosphorothioated DNA (ps-po DNA) as building blocks. Discrete monomeric, dimeric, and trimeric AgNP structures and a AgNP–AuNP hybrid structure could be constructed reliably in high yield. We demonstrate that the center-to-center distance between adjacent AgNPs can be precisely tuned from 94 to 29 nm, whereby the distance distribution is limited by the size distribution of the nanoparticles. The self-assembly of discrete AgNP and AgNP–AuNP nanoarchitectures by using rationally designed DNA templates enabled us to control some of the properties that are essential for hierarchical nanoparticle assembly. These properties include but are not limited to the spatial relationship between the particles and the identity of the particles. The system described herein could potentially be used to gain better insight into particle–particle interactions. Systematic studies with this objective are underway. Although more systematic investigations (e.g. spectroscopic studies combined with theoretical simulation of the assembled structures) are needed to identify the photonic properties of the spatially controlled AgNP architectures, we see no fundamental limitation now to the assembly of target structures.