9526581 Pinizzotto This research aims, using polynucleotides combined with II-VI inorganic materials, to explore a new and innovative approach to the synthesis and fabrication of optoelectronic nanometer structures. Recognizing the many advantages of precise replication and ordering available from polynucleotides, divalent metal ions are to be loosely bound to specific sites of single stranded polynucleotides to provide an initial ordering/spacing; after preparation of a substrate for suitable adsorption this metal/polynucleotide complex is deposited on a substrate, and treated with a gaseous chalcogenide precursor to form nanoparticles at the metal/polynucleotide sites. A combination of chemical and stereo-specific factors are expected to combine to yield an array of nanoparticles of narrow size distribution. It may be feasible, for example, to form uniform assemblies of II-VI materials such as CdS along the polynucleotide chains, and therefore to be able to use polynucleotide structures to dictate the structure, position, and size, of semiconductor particles as well as the configurations of particle arrays. %%% This project will explore a new and innovative approach to the synthesis of optoelectronic nanometer structures from the broad perspectives of chemistry, physics, materials science, and biology. The idea being explored is the potential use of polynucleotide chains as templates for the fabrication of quantum dot structures of inorganic materials such as cadmium sulfide. This project sets specific goals and methods for an initial study to test these ideas. The proposed research has potential for high pay-off to a broad range of new possibilities in optoelectronic materials, and several key issues can be appropriately addressed and resolved by the project. ***
