Water-soluble monodisperse core-shell nanorings: their tailorable preparation and interactions with oppositely charged spheres of a similar diameter.

Abstract

Water-soluble monodisperse core-shell structured polymeric nanorings were robustly produced via precise self-assembly between a circular plasmid DNA (monodisperse) and monodisperse polymeric core-shell micelles; the structural parameters of the nanorings can be tailored by controlling the structural parameters of the DNA and the micelles. A study on the morphology-dependent properties of the obtained nanorings revealed that the nanorings exhibit a much higher binding affinity than their linear counterparts when interacting with oppositely charged spheres of a similar diameter. In addition, the formation of one-to-one nanoring/sphere complexes, in which the nanoring circles the equator of the sphere, was observed, which is manifested as a "host-guest" inclusion complex on the nanoscale.