Metal nanoclusters are small assemblies of a few to hundreds of atoms (e.g. Ag, Au and Cu) that have drawn a lot of interest over the past years. DNA-templated silver nanoclusters (AgNCs) can be obtained in various sizes and diverse physical properties depending on the experimental conditions. Due to the chirality of the DNA template these AgNCs are of potential interest for asymmetric catalysis. In this work, a series of DNA double helices containing six silver(I)-mediated base pairs involving the artificial nucleobase imidazole and the natural nulceobase cytosine have been used for the synthesis of DNA-templated AgNCs. Both, original Ag(I)-containing nucleic acids and the resulting nanoclusters have been characterized by means of UV/Vis-, circular dichroism- (CD) and fluorescence spectroscopy. The results show for the first time that metal-mediated base pairs can be used for the templated growth of fluorescent as well as chiral AgNC-systems. In addition, we were able to show a high sequence dependency of the formation of AgNCs.

Synthesis and application of silver nanoclusters from DNA templates containing Ag(I)-mediated base pairs

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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