A rotary plasmonic nanoclock

Abstract

One of the fundamental challenges in nanophotonics is to gain full control over nanoscale optical elements. The precise spatiotemporal arrangement determines their interactions and collective behavior. To this end, DNA nanotechnology is employed as an unprecedented tool to create nanophotonic devices with excellent spatial addressability and temporal programmability. However, most of the current DNA-assembled nanophotonic devices can only reconfigure among random or very few defined states. Here, we demonstrate a DNA-assembled rotary plasmonic nanoclock. In this system, a rotor gold nanorod can carry out directional and reversible 360° rotation with respect to a stator gold nanorod, transitioning among 16 well-defined configurations powered by DNA fuels. The full-turn rotation process is monitored by optical spectroscopy in real time. We further demonstrate autonomous rotation of the plasmonic nanoclock powered by DNAzyme-RNA interactions. Such assembly approaches pave a viable route towards advanced nanophotonic systems entirely from the bottom-up.

Robotic DNA Nanostructures

“… 131 (e) A rotary nanoclock; a DNA origami hand rotates along a ring track via strand displacement. 132 (a) Reprinted with permission from ref ( 121 ). Copyright 2014 Springer Nature Ltd. (b) Reprinted with permission from ref ( 128 ).…”

“…Published by 2019 The American Association for the Advancement of Science. (e) Reprinted with permission from ref ( 132 ). Published by 2019 Springer Nature Ltd.…”

“…Another intriguing implementation of the “release and capture” type of walker is a nanoclock designed by Xin et al ( 132 ) (as shown in Figure 4 e). The clock consists of three DNA origami parts: a rectangular plate foundation, a ring-shaped track, and a rotary beam.…”

Toward Sub-Diffraction Imaging of Single-DNA Molecule Sensors Based on Stochastic Switching Localization Microscopy

“…One of the building blocks of these 2D and 3D nanoarchitectures is DNA origami scaffolds with long strands conjugated with short staple strands. Recently, Xin et al applied toehold-mediated strand displacement nanotechnology to develop a plasmonic nanoclock based on functional nucleic acid, i.e., DNAzyme and RNA interactions, which enabled the rotation of a 10 helix DNA origami assembly ( Figure 1 f, g) [ 22 ]. One advantage of using DNA to assemble 2D and 3D nanoarchitectures is the ability to interface and label any position with other functional molecules.…”

“…( g ) The principle is based on the release and capture mechanism powered by the interaction between DNAzyme and RNA in a stepwise rotation with additional blocking strands and removal strands by toehold-mediated strand displacement reactions. Images ( a – d ) were reproduced with permission from Gradišar et al, published by BioMed Central, 2014 [ 18 ], ( e ) was reproduced with permission from Schlichthaerle et al, published by Elsevier, 2016 [ 23 ], and ( f , g ) were reproduced with permission from Xin et al, published by Nature Publishing Group, 2019 [ 22 ].…”