DNA-Templated Preparation of Gold Nanoparticles.docVIP

Molecules 2011, 16, 8143-8151; doi:10.3390/molecules1609814310 OPEN ACCESS molecules ISSN 1420-3049 /journal/molecules Article DNA-Templated Preparation of Gold Nanoparticles Jeong Sun Sohn 1,*, Young Wan Kwon 2, Jung Il Jin 2 and Byung Wook Jo 1,* 1 Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, Chosun University, Gwangju, 501-759, South Korea 2 Department of Chemistry, Korea University, Seoul, 136-701, South Korea; E-Mails: ywkwon@korea.ac.kr (Y.W.K.); jijin@korea.ac.kr (J.I.J.) * Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed; E-Mails: jss4347@chosun.ac.kr (J.S.S.); bwjo@chosun.ac.kr (B.W.J.). Received: 6 September 2011; in revised form: 19 September 2011 / Accepted: 20 September 2011 / Published: 27 September 2011 Abstract: DNA-mediated gold nanoparticles were prepared by chemical reduction of DNA-Au(III) complex. The DNA-Au(III) was first formed by reacting DNA with HAuCl4 at a pH of 5.6. The complex in solution was reacted with hydrazine reducing Au(III) to Au. The reduced Au formed nanodimensional aggregates. The particle distributions were obtained by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). This method resulted in a rather uniform dispersion of Au nanoparticles of near- spherical shape and 45~80 nm in diameter. Gold nanoparticles were embedded and stabilized by DNA. Keywords: DNA-Au complexes; DNA-mediated; gold nanoparticles 1. Introduction Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) is one of the oldest naturally occurring polymers. Since the discovery of its double helical structure, the science of DNA has been the center of biological science and biotechnology research. The most important molecular characteristic that makes DNA both attractive and successful for designing a wide variety of structures and devices resides in its molecular and submolecular recognition capabilities [1-5]. In particular, DNA has the unique capabilities t