Enhanced photoacoustic signal from DNA assembled gold nanoparticle networks

We report an experimental finding of photoacoustic signal enhancement from finite sized DNA–gold nanoparticle networks. We synthesized DNA-functionalized hollow and solid gold nanospheres (AuNS) to form finite sized networks, which were characterized by means of optical extinction spectroscopy, dynamic light scattering, and scanning electron microscopy in transmission mode. It is shown that the signal amplification scales with network size for networks comprising either hollow or solid AuNS as well as networks consisting of both types of nanoparticles. The laser intensities applied in our multispectral setup (λ = 650 nm, 850 nm, 905 nm) were low enough to maintain the structural integrity of the networks. This reflects that the binding and recognition properties of the temperature-sensitive cross-linking DNA-molecules are retained.