Anisotropic Electroless Deposition on DNA Origami Templates To Form Small Diameter Conductive Nanowires

Abstract

An improved method for the metallization of DNA origami is examined in this work. DNA origami, a simple and robust method for creating a wide variety of nanostructured shapes and patterns, provides an enabling template for bottom-up fabrication of next-generation nanodevices. Selective metallization of these DNA templates is needed to make nanoelectronic devices. Here, we demonstrate a metallization process that uses gold nanorod seeds followed by anisotropic plating to provide improved morphology and greater control of the final metallized width of the structure. In our approach, gold nanorods are attached to an origami template to create a seed layer. Electroless gold deposition is then used to fill the gaps between seeds in order to create continuous, conductive nanowires. Importantly, growth during electroless deposition occurs preferentially in the length direction at a rate that is approximately 4 times the growth rate in the width direction, which enables fabrication of narrow, continuous wires. The electrical properties of 49 nanowires with widths ranging from 13 to 29 nm were characterized, and resistivity values as low as 8.9 × 10 Ω·m were measured. The anisotropic metallization process presented here represents important progress toward the creation of nanoelectronic devices by molecularly directed placement of functional components onto self-assembled biological templates.

Cation‐Induced Stabilization and Denaturation of DNA Origami Nanostructures in Urea and Guanidinium Chloride

“…Just ten years after their introduction, DNA origami nanostructures are widely used in various fields of applied and fundamental research. Nowadays, DNA origami act as masks in molecular lithography, templates for nanoelectronic and plasmonic device fabrication, as delivery vehicles in molecular medicine, and substrates for single‐molecule experiments . Many of these applications rely on an intact and well‐defined shape as well as tailored mechanical properties of the DNA origami.…”

Seeding, Plating and Electrical Characterization of Gold Nanowires Formed on Self-Assembled DNA Nanotubes

“…Gold nanorod synthesis was performed in an adaptation of a published method [ 37 , 40 ]. To obtain larger-diameter nanorods, sodium borohydride concentration was decreased tenfold, as a smaller number of seeds in the Au nanorod growth solution was expected to lead to the production of larger nanorods.…”

Evolution of Structural DNA Nanotechnology

“…On top of that, DNA origamis can be exploited in creating plasmonic and state‐of‐the‐art optical devices, rulers, and templates for optical high‐resolution nanoimaging such as DNA‐PAINT . Moreover, by combining DNA‐based templates with standard top‐down lithographic approaches or with modifiable metal nanoparticles and wet chemical growth methods, it could be possible to achieve implementations in molecular electronics and plasmonics and in creating novel integrated circuits (ICs) and fully tunable metamaterials …”