Confined Growth of Metal Nanoparticles Within 3D DNA Origami Molds

Manufacturing prescribed shaped metal nanoparticles promises emerging applications in plasmonics, energy, and disease diagnosis. The key to the shape-controllable synthesis is generating local environments encoded with prescribed geometrical information. Here, we describe a general strategy that uses 3D self-assembled DNA origami as mold to confine the casting growth of metal nanoparticle. By transferring the shape information from DNA cavities to metal nanoparticles, metal nanoparticles with prescribed shapes, dimensions, and surface binding features could be rationally designed and synthesized.