Mechanistic Insight into DNA-Guided Control of Nanoparticle Morphologies

Although shapes and surface characteristics of nanoparticles are known to play important roles in defining their properties, it remains challenging to fine-tune the morphologies systematically and predictably. Recently, we have shown that DNA molecules can serve as programmable ligands to fine-tune the morphologies of nanomaterials. Despite this discovery, the mechanism of how the morphology can be controlled and the roles of the DNA molecules in contributing to such control are not understood. We herein report mechanistic investigation of DNA-mediated morphological evolution of gold nanoprism seeds into nonagon, hexagon, and six-pointed stars, some of which display rough surfaces, in the presence of homo-oligomeric T30, G20, C30, and A30. The growth, elucidated through various analytical methods including UV-vis, SEM, TEM, zeta potential, fluorescence, and cyclic voltammetry, is found to occur in two stages: control of shape, followed by control of thickness. A careful analysis of diffraction patterns of the nanoprism seeds as well as the resulting intermediate shapes by TEM allowed us to deduce the exact sequence of shape evolution. Through systematic comparison of the nanoparticle growth process, the DNA molecules were found to play important roles by influencing diffusion of the Au precursor to the seed and modulating the growth through differences in DNA desorption, density, and mobility on the seed surface. These insights into the mechanism of DNA-guided control of nanomaterial morphologies provide deeper understanding of the interactions between the DNA and nanomaterials and will allow better control of the shapes and surface properties of many nanomaterials.