Experimental study of filling carbon nanotubes with nucleic acids
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Experimental study of filling carbon nanotubes with nucleic acids Daxiang Cui, Cengiz S. Ozkan1, Yong Kong and Huajian Gao Max Planck Institute for Metals Research, Heisenbergstrasse 3, 70569 Stuttgart, Germany 1
Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of California, Riverside, CA 92521-0425, USA ABSTRACT Encapsulation of DNA molecules inside carbon nanotubes (CNT) in water were performed under the conditions of 400K and 3Bar. Double stranded DNAs of 2kb and 400bp in length, and single stranded oligonucleotides of 60bp in length were selected as target molecules. Au and Pt nanoparticles and fluorescent dye Cy3 were used as tags. Agarose gel electrophoresis was used to remove DNA molecules attached on the outside walls of CNTs. Laser confocal microscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM), energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDX) were employed to confirm the encapsulation process. The results demonstrated that DNA molecules attached to the outside of CNTs can be removed by electrophoresis. Confocal microscopy and HR-TEM observations as well as EDX analysis confirmed that the Cy3-labelled DNA molecules, Au-labelled oligonucleotides and Pt-labelled DNA fragments can indeed be encapsulated inside CNTs. These experimental results support our earlier molecular dynamics simulations on encapsulating oligonucleotides inside CNTs. The DNA-CNT hybrids could be further explored for potential applications in bio-nanotechnology. INTRODUCTION Biomolecules are important elements of nanoscale science and nanotechnology [1]. Their unique shape and chemical and physical functionalities can be advantageous over many inorganic and organic substances. Biomolecules such as DNA, RNA and proteins can self-assemble into linear structures and act as templates, i.e. their shape and chemical properties can be employed to arrange inorganic substances – like metals or metal compounds – on the nanometre scale [2]. Such nanostructures can show physical properties that are different from those of the bulk material [3]. As a class of stiff, stable and hollow nanoscale materials with many unique mechanical, chemical and physical properties, carbon nanotubes (CNTs) can be expected to play an important role in nanotechnology. The chemical and physical properties of CNT can be modified by attaching molecules to its outside or filling molecules inside. So far, C60, metallofullerences, water and gas molecules have been encapsulated inside CNTs [4-8]. Functionalizing CNTs with biological molecules such as peptides and nucleic acids is a developing technology with potential applications in molecular electronics, bio-nano-devices and bio-engineering [9-11].
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Here we report preliminary experimental results of encapsulating DNA molecules inside CNTs in water. Our previous molecular dynamics simulations showed that a DNA-oligonucleotide can be spontaneously inserted into a CNT in an aqueous environment, provided that the tube diameter is large enough and the oligonucleotide i
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