Phase Transfer of Gold Metallized DNA

We report a simple solution based method for the gold (Au) metallization of DNA resulting in a Au nanowire network. Advantage of solution based approach is that it allows the removal of excess gold (Au(+3)) ions by extraction with tetraoctylammonium bromide (TOAB) in order to avoid non specific metallization. Further it has been shown that Au metallized DNA obtained in aqueous phase can be transferred to organic phase using hexadecyl aniline (HDA). Au metallized DNA has potential application in nanoscale devices.