Collision of a long DNA molecule with an isolated nanowire.
We provide an experimental test of the universal behavior arising in simulations of the electrophoretic collision of a long DNA molecule with an isolated, thin post. Our experiments take advantage of a robust protocol to embed matrices of circa 100 nm radius ZnO nanowires in a microfluidic channel. The density and height of the nanowires are easily controlled by the seeding and growth conditions. Single-molecule videomicroscopy of λ-DNA electrophoresis in a sparse nanowire array shows that the average holdup time decays exponentially with the impact parameter, in agreement with simulations. Only at the largest electric field studied here does the hooking probability approach that for an infinitesimally thin post.
Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA.
Noritoshi
N
Araki
Eray S
ES
Aydil
Kevin D
KD
Dorfman
D010582:Bacteriophage lambda; D003198:Computer Simulation; D004279:DNA, Viral / Q000737:chemistry*; D046210:Microfluidic Analytical Techniques; D008855:Microscopy, Electron, Scanning; D053770:Nanowires / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D009690:Nucleic Acid Conformation; D010316:Particle Size; D012044:Regression Analysis; D015034:Zinc Oxide / Q000737:chemistry
D004279:DNA, Viral; D015034:Zinc Oxide