A major challenge in nanoscience and nanotechnology is the rational assembly of nanoscale objects. Here we report that gold nanorods, aspect ratio 18, can be functionalized with a biotin disulfide, and subsequent addition of streptavidin links the rods together in an end-to-end manner much more often than expected.

We describe the design, synthesis, and properties of nucleoside monomers in which the DNA base is replaced by fluorescent hydrocarbons and heterocycles, and the assembly of these monomers into DNA-like molecules in which the all bases are fluorescent. As monomers, such molecules have useful applications as reporters in the DNA context. The use of fluorescent DNA bases, rather than more traditional fluorophores tethered to the DNA strand, gives a more predictable location and orientation, and yields a more direct response to changes that occur within the helix. In addition to uses as monomers, such compounds can be assembled into polychromophoric oligomers ("oligodeoxyfluorosides" or ODFs). ODFs are water soluble, discrete molecules and are easily arranged into specific sequences by use of a DNA synthesizer. They have displayed a number of properties not readily available in commercial fluorophores, including large Stokes shifts, tunable excitation and emission wavelengths, and sensing responses to physical changes or molecular species in solution. We describe an approach to assembling and screening large sets of oligofluorosides for rapid identification of molecules with desirable properties. Such compounds show promise for applications in biochemistry, biology, environmental and materials applications.

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A series of chirally substituted poly (p-phenyleneethynylene) copolymers was prepared by alkyne metathesis of mixtures of two different 2,5-dialkyl-1,4-dipropynylbenzenes. One of the monomers was the chiral bis-2,5-(S)-3,7-dimethyloctyl-1,4-dipropynylbenzene, and the second one was an achiral dipropynyl monomer. If the content of chiral monomer is 25-50 mol %, unusually large chiroptical effects, that is, optical dissymmetries, result in absorption (g = -0.38) and emission (g = -0.19) of these copolymers. The large dissymmetries can be explained by a supramolecular ordering of the PPEs into stranded features that are visualized by dark-field transmission electron microscopy. The strands of chirally substituted PPEs display a striated structure that suggests that the whole feature is a single chirally twisted crystallite.