Applications Of DNA Origami In Chiral Plasmonic Materials And Research Of DNA In Chiral Catalysis

DNA, a vital hereditary molecule, serves as genetic information carrier in the development and functioning of almost all living organisms. The fascinating Watson-Crick base-pair recognition of DNA allows for unique structural and sequence engineering in gene regulation, molecular computing, and biomedicine. The understanding of DNA garnered from studies in life sciences has triggered its significant merit in the areas of electronics, catalysis, and energy harvesting. Since1990s, the underutilized asset of DNA as nature’s designer toolkit for structural technology have been envisaged and explored. The facial control over topology and superior accuracy in templated synthesis bestow DNA the most successful molecule for programmable assembly of matter on the nanoscale. DNA nanotechnology has been applied in many fields, such as DNA computing, catalysis, drug delivery and diagnosis. DNA nanotechnology has become one of the most promising technologies.Recently, plasmonic chiral materials have attracted a lot of attention. Natural chiral molecules such as proteins and DNA exhibit strong optical chirality only in the UV range.Theoretical calculations have shown that plasmonic assemblies consisting of metallic NPs that are arranged in chiral geometries such as pyramids, tetrahedrons, helices, etc. provide a unique way to achieve strong optical chirality in the visible range. At resonance, the dipolar plasmons of individual metallic NPs can be strongly coupled. The collective plasmons that oscillate along a plasmonic chiral structure of certain handedness can lead to different absorptions in response to right-and leftcircularly polarized light.Enantioselective catalysis has been an attractive topic in fundamental research and industry applications. It is a powerful approach to yield a chiral product, or to differentiate between the two enantiomers of a racemic mixture. One of the most important goals of enantioselective catalysis is the rational design and optimization of new catalysts. Noble metal nanoparticles hold great promise for the heterogeneous catalysis because of the special physical and chemical properties, such as high surface-to-volume ratio, macroscopic quantum tunnel effect, the surface effect and the quantum confinement effects. The functionalization of metal nanocatalyst with DNA compound that offers the suitable stereochemical control is a simple strategy leading to designable and high enantioselectivities in a variety of reactions.The main contents are as follows:1. Some kinds of DNA nanostructures based on DNA origami are reviewed. Then DNA nanotechnology applied in the catalysis was introduced.2. The rectangular DNA origami is selected as template to assembly gold nanorods. We demonstrate a programmable3D plasmonic chiral colloid. Assemblies of twisted AuNRs templated by DNA origami are dispersed in a water-based solution. In each structure, two AuNRs are assembled on the opposite surfaces of a planar DNA origami sheet, forming a90°twisting angle.The morphology of twisted AuNRs was characterized by TEM. Steady signal of optical activity were obtained.3. We choose DNA-capped AuNPs that can mimick the catalysis of glucose oxidase (GOx) as the model catalyst system, and explore the enantioselective catalysis towards the D-glucose and L-glucose. On one hand, we want to investigate catalytic efficiency of DNA-capped AuNPs towards the D-glucose and L-glucose. The other purpose is to study the atalytic rate of DNA-capped AuNPs.