While spherical colloidal nanostructures are attractive candidates for understanding nanoscale self-organization phenomena, they often lack directional interactions analogous to those found in atomic systems due to their high symmetry. The introduction of nanoparticle shape anisotropy in colloidal crystallization assembly techniques provides the opportunity to impart directional interactions between structures by causing some orientational modes of association to be more favorable than others. Non-spherical gold nanostructures functionalized with a dense layer of duplexed oligonucleotide ligands that facilitate interparticle interactions are capable of such directional interparticle �bonds� through commensurate overlap of their flat, faceted surfaces. This preference for face-to-face orientation of neighboring nanostructures facilitates the assembly of nanoparticle superlattices whole symmetry and dimensionality depend on the shape of the nanoparticle building blocks used in their construction. Finally, some of the unique nanoparticle crystals synthesized by this methodology are shown to exhibit novel plasmonic optical properties that arise only in the ordered state.

Directional assembly interactions in oligonucleotide-modified anisotropic gold nanostructures

243rd National Meeting (2012)

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