Protein-templated semiconductor nanoparticle chains.

Characterizing proton relaxation times for metallic and magnetic layer-by-layer-coated, DNA-templated nanoparticle chains.

Metallic and superparamagnetic DNA-templated nanoparticle (NP) chains are examined as potential imaging agents. Proton relaxation times (T(1) and T(2)) are measured for DNA nanostructures using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. The layer-by-layer (LBL) method was used to encapsulate the DNA-templated NP chains and demonstrated a change in proton relaxation times. Results from this ...

Bio-Templated Systems for Nanoelectronics

In our research we use bio-templated systems to realize one-dimensional conducting nanowires and nanodevices for scientific investigation of electrical charge transport in these systems, for nanoelectronics and for nanotechnology applications. One example is dsDNA and its synthetic derivatives. Within this frame we measured electrical charge transport in dsDNA, measured the energy level spectru...

Epitaxy of Ge nanowires grown from biotemplated Au nanoparticle catalysts.

Semiconductor nanowires (NWs) are being actively investigated due to their unique functional properties which result from their quasi-one-dimensional structure. However, control over the crystallographic growth direction, diameter, location, and morphology of high-density NWs is essential to achieve the desirable properties and to integrate these NWs into miniaturized devices. This article pres...

Light-assisted, templated self-assembly of gold nanoparticle chains.

We experimentally demonstrate the technique of light-assisted, templated self-assembly (LATS) to trap and assemble 200 nm diameter gold nanoparticles. We excite a guided-resonance mode of a photonic-crystal slab with 1.55 μm laser light to create an array of optical traps. Unlike our previous demonstration of LATS with polystyrene particles, we find that the interparticle interactions play a si...

Protein-Templated Synthesis and Assembly of Visible-Light-Driven Semiconductor Nano-Architectures for Efficient Hydrogen Production