Assembly of gold nanoparticles (AuNP) into designer architectures with reliablity is important for nanophotonics and nanoelectronics applications. Toward this goal we present a new strategy to prepare AuNPs monofunctionalized with lipoic acid modified DNA oligos. This strategy offers increased bonding strength between DNA oligos and AuNP surface. These conjugates are further selectively mixed with other DNA strands and assembled into fixed sized DNA nanostructures carring a discrete number of AuNPs at desired positions. Atomic force microscopy imaging reveals a dramatically improved yield of the AuNPs on DNA tile structure compared to the ensembles using monothiolate AuNP-DNA conjugates.

Eine Molekülbrücke: Ein molekularer Stab mit einem substituierten Oligo(phenylenethinylen)‐Rückgrat mit Salicylaldehydeinheiten in den Endpositionen wurde an kurze, 10 Basenpaare enthaltende DNA‐Sequenzen (rot) konjugiert. Das Anlagern zweier solcher Konjugate an ein DNA‐Templat (blau) richtet die beiden Moleküle für die Bildung eines Metall‐Salen‐Komplexes in Gegenwart von Ethylendiamin und einem Metallsalz aus.

A series of homo- and heteroditopic thymine- and/or adenine-terminated molecules incorporating rigid aryl or oligo(phenylene ethynylene) linkers has been efficiently synthesized. The key steps involved in the synthesis are the construction of the N-arylated nucleobases using the Chan-Lam-Evans-modified Ullman coupling and their further elaboration using the Sonogashira coupling. Furthermore, the synthesis of a rigid tripodal thymine derivative is reported.

We are presenting the synthesis of a phenylene ethynylene-based rod containing an Fmoc protected amino group and an activated acid which can be applied to peptide couplings. This linear amino acid analogue is applied to the synthesis of di-, tri- and pentamers. The pentamer has a molecular mass of 6.5 kDa and is characterized by (1)H NMR spectroscopy and MALDI-TOF MS. The method has potential for the formation of long macromolecular oligomers.