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Roles of anionic and cationic template components in biomineralization of CdS nanorods using self-assembled
Hongjun Liang1, Thomas E Angelini, Paul V Braun
1Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Frederick Seitz Materials Research Laboratory, Department of Physics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA.
Abstract:
Complexes of anionic DNA and cationic liposomes self-assemble into a multilamellar structure where two-dimensional lipid sheets confine a periodic one-dimensional lattice of parallel DNA chains, between which Cd(2+) ions can condense, and be subsequently reacted with H(2)S to form CdS nanorods. In this work, we identify the synergistic roles of the anionic and cationic components within the DNA-membrane template; DNA is highly anionic and condenses the Cd(2+) ions, while the cationic membrane modulates the concentration of condensed Cd(2+) ions to control the final CdS nanorod dimensions. Due to the strong electrostatic interactions between the DNA sugar-phosphate backbone and the Cd(2+) ions, crystallographic control of CdS nanostructures is possible using these simple DNA-membrane templates, which we demonstrate using nanobeam electron diffraction experiments on individual templated CdS nanorods.
