A simple method for preparing DNA-stabilized Ag nanoclusters (NCs) nanowires is presented. To fabricate the Ag NCs nanowires, we use just two unmodified component strands and a long enzymatically produced scaffold. These nanowires form at room temperature and have periodic sequence units that are available for fluorescence Ag NCs assembled which formed three-way junction (TWJ) structure. These Ag NCs nanowires can be clearly visualized by confocal microscopy. Furthermore, due to the high efficiency of rolling circle amplification reaction in signal amplification, the nanowires exhibit high sensitivity for the specific DNA detection with a wide linear range from 6 to 300 pM and a low detection limit of 0.84 pM, which shows good performance in the complex serum samples. Therefore, these Ag NCs nanowires might have great potential in clinical and imaging applications in the future.
Keywords: rolling circle amplification; self-assembly; silver cluster.