DNA Tetrahedron Framework Guided Conjugation and Assembly of Gold Nanoparticles

Au nanoparticles (AuNPs) have been extensively used to assemble programmable structures that feature various functions. One central challenge of precisely directed assembly is to make valence-programmable building blocks. Herein, we use the DNA tetrahedron framework to stoichiometrically conjugate to Au nanoparticles, which results in monovalent building blocks at nanometer scale. We further fabricated high-order Au-tetrahedron structures to verify the ability of the blocks for building assemblies. These structures represent an exploration of an avenue to monovalent AuNPs, and provide the feasibility of precisely manipulating nanoparticles into prescribed assemblies.