Fabrication and characterization of DNA-templated conductive gold nanoparticle chains

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

<P>We present a fabrication of conductive nanowires made of gold nanoparticle (AuNP) chains based on lambda-DNA molecules immobilized on a surface of (3-aminopropyl)triethoxysilane-coated Si wafer as the template. A tilting technique was used to align and stretch the lambda-DNAs on the surface. Aniline-capped AuNPs (AN-AuNPs) were electrostatically assembled along the immobilized DNAs by careful control of the AN-AuNPs treatment time and the DNA concentration. AuNPs are attached on DNA with a reduction in Au surface potential as the treatment time increases. Also, the interparticle spacing is dependent on the treatment time and the DNA concentration. AuNP chains with a complete contact between particles were obtained when the treatment time and the DNA concentration were optimized. For electrical conductivity measurements, an isolated AuNP chain was fixed between two gold electrodes. The AuNP chain based on DNA showed an Ohmic behavior at room temperature with the conductivity of two orders of magnitude lower than the bulk value. (C) 2009 American Institute of Physics. [DOI: 10.1063/1.3091281]</P>