DNA origami-templated assembly of plasmonic nanostructures with enhanced Raman scattering

DNA origami have been established as versatile templates to fabricate plasmonic nanostructures in predefined shapes and multiple dimensions. Limited to the size of DNA origami, which are approximate to 100 nm, it is hard to assemble more intricate plasmonic nanostructures in large scale. Herein, we used rectangular DNA origami as the template to anchor two 30-nm gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) which induced dimers nanostructures. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) images showed the assembly of AuNPs with high yields. Using the linkers to organize the DNA origami templates into nanoribbons, chains of AuNPs were obtained, which was validated by the TEM images. Furthermore, we observed a significant Raman signal enhancement from molecules covalently attached to the AuNP-dimers and AuNP-chains. Our method opens up the prospects of high-ordered plasmonic nanostructures with tailored optical properties.