Resolving the internal structure of nanoparticle dimers linked by DNA
Light and x-ray scattering experiments have revealed the structure of nanoparticle dimers linked by flexible DNA chains. These dimers were basic units in a multi-scale,hierarchical assembly, and served as a model system to understand DNA-mediated interactions, particularly in the non-trivial regime when the nanoparticle and DNA links were comparable in size. We found that the interparticle separation within the dimer was primarily controlled by the number of linking DNA. Researchers summarize their findings in a simple model that captured the interplay of the number of DNA bridges, their length,the curvature of the nanoparticle, and the excluded volume effects. We demonstrated excellent agreement of our analytical model with both our experimental and computational results, without use of free parameters in the model.