title: Energy behaviour for DNA translocation through graphene nanopores.
abstract: Nanoparticles have considerable promise for many applications in electronics, energy storage, bioscience and biotechnologies. Here we use applied mathematical modelling to exploit the basic principles of mechanics and the 6-12 Lennard-Jones potential function together with the continuum approach, which assumes that a discrete atomic structure can be replaced by an average constant atomic surface density of atoms that is assumed to be smeared over each molecule. We identify a circular hole in a graphene sheet as a nanopore and we consider the molecular interaction energy for both single-strand and double-strand DNA molecules assumed to move through the circular hole in a graphene sheet to determine the radius b of the hole that gives the minimum energy. By minimizing the interaction energy, we observe that the single-strand DNA and double-strand DNA molecules penetrate through a graphene nanopore when the pore radii b> 7.8Å and b> 12.7Å, respectively. Our results can be adopted to offer new applications in the atomic surface processes and electronic sensing.
authors.affiliation: Mathematics Department, College of Science, King Saud University P.O.Box 2455, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia. Electronic address: mhalshehri@ksu.edu.sa.
authors.forename: Mansoor H
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Alshehri
authors.affiliation: School of Mathematical Sciences, University of Adelaide, SA 5005, Australia.
authors.forename: Barry J
authors.initials: BJ
authors.lastname: Cox
authors.affiliation: School of Information Technology and Mathematical Sciences, Mawson Lakes Campus, University of South Australia, Australia.
authors.forename: James M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Hill
mesh_terms: D004247:DNA / Q000737:chemistry*; D004277:DNA, Single-Stranded; D006108:Graphite / Q000737:chemistry*; D058608:Nanopores; D009690:Nucleic Acid Conformation; D013816:Thermodynamics
chemical_list: D004277:DNA, Single-Stranded; D006108:Graphite; D004247:DNA
keywords: Continuum approach; Double-strand DNA (dsDNA); Graphene nanopore; Interaction energy; Lennard-Jones potential; Single-strand DNA (ssDNA)