Electrochemical switching with 3D DNA tetrahedral nanostructures self-assembled at gold electrodes

Nanomechanical switching of functional three-dimensional (3D) DNA nanostructures is crucial for nanobiotechnological applications such as nanorobotics or self-regulating sensor and actuator devices. Here, DNA tetrahedral nanostructures self-assembled onto gold electrodes were shown to undergo the electronically addressable nanoswitching due to their mechanical reconfiguration upon external chemical stimuli. That enables construction of robust surface-tethered electronic nanodevices based on 3D DNA tetrahedra. One edge of the tetrahedron contained a partially self-complementary region with a stem-loop hairpin structure, reconfigurable upon hybridization to a complementary DNA (stimulus DNA) sequence. A non-intercalative ferrocene (Fc) redox label was attached to the reconfigurable tetrahedron edge in such a way that reconfiguration of this edge changed the distance between the electrode and Fc.