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Phoenix666 [soylentnews.org] writes:

Gold nanoparticles have unusual optical, electronic, and chemical properties [futurity.org]. But the tiny particles are much more interesting when they are closer to each other—either in small clusters or as crystals made up of millions of them.

Yet particles that are just millionths of an inch in size are too small to be manipulated by conventional lab tools, so a major challenge has been finding ways to assemble these bits of gold while controlling the three-dimensional shape of their arrangement.

One approach that researchers have developed has been to use tiny structures made from synthetic strands of DNA to help organize nanoparticles. Since DNA strands are programmed to pair with other strands in certain patterns, scientists have attached individual strands of DNA to gold particle surfaces to create a variety of assemblies.

But these hybrid gold-DNA nanostructures are intricate and expensive to generate, limiting their potential for use in practical materials. The process is similar, in a sense, to producing books by hand.

Enter the nanoparticle equivalent of the printing press.

It’s efficient, re-usable, and carries more information than previously possible. In results reported in Nature Chemistry, researchers from McGill University outline a procedure for making a DNA structure with a specific pattern of strands coming out of it; at the end of each strand is a chemical “sticky patch.”

Original study [doi.org].

Original Submission