Templating gold nanorods with liquid crystalline DNA

A liquid crystalline, negatively charged, whole-genome DNA is exploited to organize positively charged gold nanorods (GNRs) by means of electrostatic interaction. A mesoscopic alignment of the composite system along a preferred direction is obtained by casting a droplet of the DNA-nanorods solution onto an untreated glass substrate. Gel electrophoresis analysis enables evaluating the effective electric charge of the system, thus minimizing the DNA fragmentation. Polarized optical microscopy, combined with ...