DNA Coated Nanoparticle eight-mers as Programmable Self-Assembly Building Blocks

TL;DR: It is argued that a DNA coated nanoparticle by itself cannot be used as a programmable self-assembly building block since it does not have directed bonds.

Abstract: Nanoparticles coated with single stranded DNA have been shown to efficiently hybridize to targets of complementary DNA. This property might be used to implement programmable (or algorithmic-) self-assembly to build nanoparticle structures. However, we argue that a DNA coated nanoparticle by itself cannot be used as a programmable self-assembly building block since it does not have directed bonds. A general scheme for assembling and purifying nanoparticle eight-mers with eight geometrically well-directed bonds is presented together with some preliminary experimental work.