title: Transverse tunneling through DNA hydrogen bonded to an electrode.
abstract: Guanidinium ions tethered to an electrode form electrical contacts to DNA via hydrogen bonding with the backbone phosphates, thus providing a sequence-independent electrical connector for native DNA submerged in an aqueous electrolyte. DNA adlayers on a guanidinium modified electrode can be imaged by scanning tunneling microscopy with tens of pS gap conductance. The image resolution suggests that multiatom contacts contribute to the tunnel conductance, so we estimate that the single-nucleotide pair conductance may be on the order of 1 pS.
authors.affiliation: Biodesign Institute, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona 85287, USA.
authors.forename: Jin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: He
authors.forename: Lisha
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: Peiming
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Quinn
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Spadola
authors.forename: Zhiqun
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Xi
authors.forename: Qiang
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Fu
authors.forename: Stuart
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lindsay
mesh_terms: D004247:DNA / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D004566:Electrodes; D019791:Guanidine / Q000737:chemistry; D006860:Hydrogen Bonding; D018625:Microscopy, Atomic Force; D016252:Microscopy, Scanning Tunneling
chemical_list: D004247:DNA; D019791:Guanidine