Work

Optically Triggered Melting of DNA on Individual Semiconducting Carbon Nanotubes

Year: 2017

Type: article

Abstract: Optical excitation of nanostructures is known to induce local heating, a phenomenon that has been intensely exploited for drug release, gene delivery, cancer thermotherapy, and energy harvesting. However, the effect is typically small requiring collective heating of a large concentration or aggregates of particles. Herein, we show that optical excitation of individual semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotubes triggers strongly localized heating adequate to melt non-covalently attached double-stranded oligonucleotides in solution. In contrast to conventional thermal dehybridization, this optically triggered DNA melting occurs at a solution temperature that is 22 °C lower than the DNA melting temperature. This unexpectedly large localized optical heating effect provides important new insights to design selective optical nanoheaters at the single particle level.

Source: Angewandte Chemie International Edition

DOI: 10.1002/anie.201703332

Authors: Chunyan Wang, Brendan Meany, YuHuang Wang

Institution: University of Maryland, College Park

Language: English

Topic: Advanced biosensing and bioanalysis techniques

Subfield: Molecular Biology

Field: Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology

Domain: Life Sciences

Open Access status: green

Funders: Office of Naval Research, National Institute of General Medical Sciences

Awards: G320889187, Chemical Gating of a Tube-in-a-Tube Semiconductor