Nanotube templates assembly: Water-soluble conjugates between gold nanoparticles and DNA-wrapped single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs), as shown in the figure, are constructed based on a self-assembly strategy that does not require any chemical modifications to the sidewalls of the SWNTs, which minimizes the possibility of changes to their structure and properties. The success of assembling Au nanoparticles (AuNPs) onto SWNTs paves a way for further decoration of AuNPs on SWNTs to achieve multifunctionalities.