Molecular imprinting of biomineralized CdS nanostructures: crystallographic control using self-assembled DNA-membrane templates

A wide range of biomineralization and templating methods exist for organizing inorganic materials at a wide range of length-scales. Here, we show that crystallographic control of the inorganic nanostructures is possible using synthetic biomolecular templates comprised of anionic DNA and cationic membranes, which self-assemble into a multilamellar structure where a periodic one-dimensional (1D) lattice of parallel DNA chains is confined between stacked two-dimensional (2D) lipid sheets. We have organized Cd2+ ions within the interhelical pores between DNA strands and subsequently reacted them with H2S to form CdS nanorods of controllable widths and crystallographic orientation. The strong electrostatic interactions align the templated CdS (002) polar planes parallel to the negatively charged sugar-phosphate DNA backbone, which indicates that molecular details of the DNA molecule are imprinted onto the inorganic crystal structure. The resultant nanorods have (002) planes tilted by 60 degrees with respect to the rod axis, in contrast to all known II-VI semiconductor nanorods.