Abstract
Ag nanowires and nanoparticles have been formed on hybrid lambda-DNA/conducting polymer templates. The strong, but non-covalent, interaction of the conducting polymer with the double helix allowed us to incorporate chemical functionalities (alkynyl) into the DNA/conducting polymer strands by synthesis of functional monomers. Oxidative polymerisation of alkynyl-thienylpyrrole in the presence of lambda-DNA produced conductive nanowires bearing alkyne groups; we show, using a combination of AFM, cAFM and EFM phase measurements that the alkyne functionality strong influences the subsequent templating reaction of Tollens' reagent to produce uniform conductive nanowires comprised of many connected Ag clusters. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.