Size-selective incorporation of DNA nanocages into nanoporous antimony-doped tin oxide materials

Chad R. Simmons, Dominik Schmitt, Xixi Wei, Dongran Han, Alex M. Volosin, Danielle M. Ladd, Dong Seo, Yan Liu, Hao Yan

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

20 Scopus citations

Abstract

A conductive nanoporous antimony-doped tin oxide (ATO) powder has been prepared using the sol-gel method that contains three-dimensionally interconnected pores within the metal oxide and highly tunable pore sizes on the nanoscale. It is demonstrated that these porous materials possess the capability of hosting a tetrahedral-shaped DNA nanostructure of defined dimensions with high affinity. The tunability of pore size enables the porous substrate to selectively absorb the DNA nanostructures into the metal oxide cavities or exclude them from entering the surface layer. Both confocal fluorescence microscopy and solution FRET experiments revealed that the DNA nanostructures maintained their integrity upon the size-selective incorporation into the cavities of the porous materials. As DNA nanostructures can serve as a stable three-dimensional nanoscaffold for the coordination of electron transfer mediators, this work opens up new possibilities of incorporating functionalized DNA architectures as guest molecules to nanoporous conductive metal oxides for applications such as photovoltaics, sensors, and solar fuel cells.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)6060-6068
Number of pages9
JournalACS nano
Volume5
Issue number7
DOIs
StatePublished - Jul 26 2011

Keywords

  • DNA nanocages
  • DNA nanotechnology
  • antimony-doped tin oxide (ATO)
  • conductive metal oxides
  • nanoporous materials

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Materials Science
  • General Engineering
  • General Physics and Astronomy

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