DNA based strategy to nanoparticle superlattices

Over more than 20 years of development has led to the substantial progress made in the wet chemical synthesis of elementary nanoparticle building blocks including metal nanoparticles, quantum dots, and magnetic particles. However, it remains challenging to rationally assemble them into well-defined molecule-like architectures. DNA was first used to program nanomaterials synthesis in 1996, and more recently highly-ordered structures have emerged, including finite-number assemblies (nanoparticle molecules), regularly spaced nanoparticle chains (nanoparticle polymers) and extended two- and three-dimensional ordered arrays (nanoparticle superlattices). In this review, we largely focus on the use of DNA to grow nanoparticle superlattices. First, typical synthetic approaches and characterization methodologies for monodisperse nanoparticle building blocks used in DNA-based nanoparticle superlattices are described; secondly, the viable conjugation and characterization methods are discussed: finally, the three representative self-assembly strategies are introduced in detail. (C) 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.