Guanine binding to gold nanoparticles through nonbonding interactions

Gold nanoparticles have been widely used as nanocarriers in gene delivery. However, the binding mechanism between gold nanoparticles and DNA bases remains a puzzle. We performed density functional theory calculations with and without dispersion correction on AuN (N = 13, 55, or 147) nanoparticles in high-symmetry cuboctahedral structures to understand the mechanism of their binding with guanine at the under-coordinated sites. Our study verified that: (i) negative charges transfer from the inner area to the surface of a nanoparticle as a result of the surface quantum trapping effect; and (ii) the valence states shift up toward the Fermi level, and thereby participate more actively in the binding to guanine. These effects are more prominent in a smaller nanoparticle, which has a larger surface-to-volume ratio. Additional fragment orbital analysis revealed that: (i) electron donation from the lone-pair orbital of N to the unoccupied orbital of the Au cluster occurs in all complexes; (ii) π back-donation occurs from the polarized Au dyz orbital to the N py-π* orbital when there is no Au⋯H–N hydrogen bond, and, (iii) depending on the configuration, Au⋯H–N hydrogen bonding can also exist, to which the Au occupied orbital and the H–N unoccupied orbital contribute.