Photoinduced formation of electrically conductive thin palladium nanowires on DNA scaffolds

A photochemical method has been exploited for the very fast synthesis of electrically conductive Pd nanowires on DNA. The nanowires have an average diameter of 55-75 nm and a length of approximately 3-5 mum. Our result signifies that the DNA acts both as a reducing agent as well as nonspecific capping agent for the Pd nanowire synthesis. The current voltage (I-V) characterization indicates that the nanowires are continuous and exhibit Ohmic behavior with low contact resistance. The deposition is highly selective on DNA only. Our experiment indicates that Pd nanowires may be valuable as interconnections in nanoscale integrated circuitry, functional nanodevices and in optoelectronics.