Research Highlight #5:

Biological Linkers for Plasmonic Fluorescence Enhancement

Yeechi Chen, Keiko Munechika, Joseph Wei & David Ginger;
Department of Chemistry, University of Washington

We developed a method of attaching dyes at a fixed distance from metal surfaces with double-stranded DNA. Using this method, we studied the fluorescence enhancement of dyes attached to single silver nanoparticles. We have also studied the resonant scattering properties of silver triangular prisms, which are promising nanostructures for coupling with protein and peptide linkers for both fluorescence and SERS applications. We have also worked with peptides as inks in Dip-Pen Nanolithography and produced encouraging preliminary data. The selection of heterobifunctional peptide inks could allow their use as biological erectors for the template-directed assembly of functional nanostructures.

Contact D. Ginger, for more details, ginger@chem.washington.edu.

Nano Letters, 7(3) 690 (2007).