Graphene on Au(111): a highly conductive material with excellent adsorption properties for high-resolution bio/nanodetection and identification.
Based on numerical simulations and experimental studies, we show that a composite material which consists of a sheet of graphene on a Au(111) surface exhibits both an excellent conductivity and the ability to stably adsorb biomolecules. If we use this material as a substrate, the signal-to-noise ratios can be greatly enhanced. The key to this unique property is that graphene can stably adsorb carbon-based rings, which are widely present in biomolecules, due to pi-stacking interactions while the substrate retains the excellent conductivity of gold. Remarkably, the signal-to-noise ratio is found to be so high that the signal is clearly distinguishable for different nucleobases when an ssDNA is placed on this graphene-on-Au(111) material. Our finding opens opportunities for a range of bio/nano-applications including single-DNA-molecule-based biodevices and biosensors, particularly, high-accuracy sequencing of DNA strands with repeating segments.
Song
Bo
B
Laboratory of Physical Biology, Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, P.O. Box 800-204, Shanghai 201800, China.
Li
Di
D
Qi
Wenpeng
W
Elstner
Marcus
M
Fan
Chunhai
C
Fang
Haiping
H
D000327:Adsorption; D004247:DNA / Q000737:chemistry*; D006046:Gold / Q000737:chemistry*; D006108:Graphite / Q000737:chemistry*; D008954:Models, Biological; D036103:Nanotechnology; D011791:Quartz
D011791:Quartz; D006046:Gold; D006108:Graphite; D004247:DNA