Impact of Polymer-Constrained Annealing on the Properties of DNA Origami-Templated Gold Nanowires

DNA origami-templated fabrication enables bottom-up fabrication of nanoscale structures from a variety of functional materials, including metal nanowires. We studied the impact of low-temperature annealing on the morphology and conductance of DNA-templated nanowires. Nanowires were formed by selective seeding of gold nanorods on DNA origami and gold electroless plating of the seeded structures. At low annealing temperatures (160 degrees C for seeded-only and 180 degrees C for plated), the wires broke up and separated into multiple, isolated islands. Through the use of polymer-constrained annealing, the island formation in plated wires was suppressed up to annealing temperatures of 210 degrees C. Four-point electrical measurements showed that the wires remained conductive after a polymer-constrained annealing at 200 degrees C.