Nanoscale Palladium Metallization of DNA

The formation of palladium nanoclusters on a DNA template is investigated in this paper. In this novel approach to the metallization of DNA, the metal particles are not prepared in advance, but on the DNA strands themselves—the DNA is activated with palladium cations, which are then reduced to initiate nucleation and growth of the palladium clusters. This results in the formation of "nanowires" (see Figure).