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Wednesday, 11th April 2007 (4775 views)

The infiltration of nanotechnology into everyday technology continues with the latest discovery that nanoscale rods can be modified through binding gold nanoparticles to the end of tubular viruses.

Research by a team of scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Solid-State Research in Stuttgart has been successful in this selective modification of nanoscale rods, according to leading nanotechnology resource Azonano.

Christina Wedge led the research team and found that by using an electroless gold-plating technique, the gold ends created can be enlarged to form dumbbell-shaped structures.

This means that the ends are symmetrical and have a uniform size just like DNA strands.

The researchers used a tobacco mosaic virus in their experiments which is a relatively harmless virus which is shaped like a long tube. This was an ideal mould for the exact positioning of nano-objects and allowed for the synthesis of structured nanomaterials.

The individual gold nanoparticles used tend to bind only to the ends and not to the length of the viruses which means that a wide range of applications can be envisaged for the nano dumbbells. Researchers believe that they could be used as junctions for nanoscale electrical wiring.

 

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