Addressing the effect of different environmental factors on the adsorption of DNA to solid supports is critical for the development of robust miniaturized devices for applications ranging from biosensors to next generation molecular technology. Most of the time, thiol-based chemistry is used to anchor DNA on gold - a substrate commonly used in nanotechnology - and little is known about the direct interaction between DNA and gold. So far there have been no systematic studies on the direct adsorption behavior of the deoxyribonucleotides (i.e., a nitrogenous base, a deoxyribose sugar, and a phosphate group) and on the factors that govern the DNA-gold bond strength. Here, using single molecule force spectroscopy, we investigated the interaction of the four individual nucleotides, adenine, guanine, cytosine, and thymine, with gold. Experiments were performed in three salinity conditions and two surface dwell times to reveal the factors that influence nucleotide-Au bond strength. Force data show that, at physiological ionic strength, adenine-Au interactions are stronger, asymmetrical and independent of surface dwell time as compared to cytosine-Au and guanine-Au interactions. We suggest that in these conditions only adenine is able to chemisorb on gold. A decrease of the ionic strength significantly increases the bond strength for all nucleotides. We show that moderate ionic strength along with longer surface dwell period suggest weak chemisorption also for cytosine and guanine.
Mussel
wet adhesion is known for its outstanding strength on a
variety of surfaces. On the basis of the hypothesis that 3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine,
a catecholic amino acid, governs mussel adhesion, chemists have put
much effort into the design of adhesive synthetic polymers containing
catechols. However, the exceptional properties exhibited by the native
proteins were hardly captured. The attempts to make those polymers
stick to wet inorganic surfaces resulted in low adhesive forces. Here
we synthesized poly(dopamine acrylamide) and measured the interaction
forces with various inorganic surfaces using atomic force microscopy-based
single-molecule force spectroscopy. We show that hydroxylation of
the surface plays a pivotal role on the formation of strong bonds.
We demonstrate that depending on the conditions, the whole range of
interactions, from weak interactions to covalent bonds, can come into
play.
To explore the effectiveness of monofluorinated isoindigo as an electron-deficient building block in push-pull conjugated polymers for organic solar cell applications, four low bandgap copolymers are effectively synthesized and characterized. The effects of fluorine introduction, thiophene spacer length and polymer molar mass on the general electro-optical polymer characteristics, thin film blend microstructure and electronic performance are investigated. Isoindigo monofluorination effectively improves the power conversion efficiency from 2.8 up to 5.0% upon molar mass optimization, without using any processing additives or post-treatments.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.