DNA technique yields 3-D crystalline organization of nanoparticles

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Body-centered-cubic unit cells of the 3-D nanoparticle crystals. One type of nanoparticle occupies each corner of the cube and a second type of nanoparticle is located centrally inside. These unit cells measuring tens of nanometers form a repeating l ...
"Body-centered-cubic" unit cells of the 3-D nanoparticle crystals. One type of nanoparticle occupies each corner of the cube and a second type of nanoparticle is located centrally inside. These unit cells, measuring tens of nanometers, form a repeating lattice that extends more than a micron (1,000 nanometers) in three dimensions.

In an achievement some see as the "holy grail" of nanoscience, researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory have for the first time used DNA to guide the creation of three-dimensional, ordered, crystalline structures of nanoparticles (particles with dimensions measured in billionths of a meter). The ability to engineer such 3-D structures is essential to producing functional materials that take advantage of the unique properties that may exist at the nanoscale - for example, enhanced magnetism, improved catalytic activity, or new optical properties. The research will be published in the January 31, 2008, issue of the journal Nature.


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