University of Toronto researchers publish on quantum dots and ‘artificial molecules’

Professors Shana Kelley and Ted Sargent (he was last mentioned in my June 28, 2011 posting on colloidal quantum dots) have published their findings on quantum dots, self-assembly, and luninescence in Nature Nanotechnology. From the July 10, 2011 news item on Nanowerk,

“Nanotechnologists have for many years been captivated by quantum dots – particles of semiconductor that can absorb and emit light efficiently, and at custom-chosen wavelengths,” explained co-author Kelley, a Professor at the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy, the Department of Biochemistry in the Faculty of Medicine, and the Department of Chemistry in the Faculty of Arts & Science. “What the community has lacked – until now – is a strategy to build higher-order structures, or complexes, out of multiple different types of quantum dots. This discovery fills that gap.”

The team combined its expertise in DNA and in semiconductors to invent a generalized strategy to bind certain classes of nanoparticles to one another.

“The credit for this remarkable result actually goes to DNA: its high degree of specificity – its willingness to bind only to a complementary sequence – enabled us to build rationally-engineered, designer structures out of nanomaterials,” said Sargent, a Professor in The Edward S. Rogers Sr. Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering at the University of Toronto, who is also the Canada Research Chair in Nanotechnology. “The amazing thing is that our antennas built themselves – we coated different classes of nanoparticles with selected sequences of DNA, combined the different families in one beaker, and nature took its course. The result is a beautiful new set of self-assembled materials with exciting properties.”

For anyone who can get past Nature Nanotechnology’s paywall, the article is titled, “DNA-based programming of quantum dot valency, self-assembly and luminescence”, and it was released on July 10, 2011.

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