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Updated: Aug 4, 2026

Self-assembly of Complex Two-dimensional Shapes from Single-stranded DNA Tiles
Published on: May 8, 2015
Chirality-induced spin-selective properties of self-assembled monolayers of DNA on gold
1Department of Chemical Physics, The Weizmann Institute, Rehovot 76100, Israel.
Abstract:
Here we show that self-assembled monolayers on gold of double-stranded DNA oligomers interact with polarized electrons similarly to a strong and oriented magnetic field. The direction of the field for right-handed DNA is away from the substrate. Moreover, the layer shows very high paramagnetic susceptibility. Interestingly, thiolated single-stranded DNA oligomers on gold do not show this effect. The new findings are rationalized based on recent results in which high paramagnetism was measured for diamagnetic films adsorbed on diamagnetic substrates.
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