Silicene as a new potential DNA sequencing device

Abstract

Silicene, a hexagonal buckled 2D allotrope of silicon, shows potential as a platform for numerous new applications, and may allow for easier integration with existing silicon-based microelectronics than graphene. Here, we show that silicene could function as an electrical DNA sequencing device. We investigated the stability of this novel nano-bio system, its electronic properties and the pronounced effects on the transverse electronic transport, i.e., changes in the transmission and the conductance caused by adsorption of each nucleobase, explored by us through the non-equilibrium Green's function method. Intriguingly, despite the relatively weak interaction between nucleobases and silicene, significant changes in the transmittance at zero bias are predicted by us, in particular for the two nucleobases cytosine and guanine. Our findings suggest that silicene could be utilized as an integrated-circuit biosensor as part of a lab-on-a-chip device for DNA sequencing.

Adsorption of nucleobases on 2D transition-metal dichalcogenides and graphene sheet: a first principles density functional theory study

“…is similar to the one reported in literature. 56 The calculated work functions for pristine MoS 2 , WS 2 and GRA and nucleobase-substrate complexes are shown in Table 2. The order of binding affinity of nucleobases with MoS 2 and WS 2 is G > A > T > C > U, which is similar to that of GRA in the present study and also in earlier studies.…”

A theoretical study of gas adsorption on silicene nanoribbons and its application in a highly sensitive molecule sensor

“…The extraordinary properties of silicene along with its compatibility with silicon based nanoelectronics may give the edge to silicene rather than graphene. Numerous potential applications of silicene in spintronics, 33 field-effect transistors (FETs), 34,35 and sensing devices 36,37 have been proposed. Unlike a flat graphene sheet, the silicene honeycomb structure is buckled 15,16 due to the tendency of silicon atoms to adopt sp 3 and sp 2 hybridization rather than only sp 2 hybridization.…”

Optical fingerprints and electron transport properties of DNA bases adsorbed on monolayer MoS2

“…However, the poor sensitivity and high temperature operability in metal oxide devices; researchers have been investigating in new alternative materials such as silicene, CNT, MoS 2 etc. for sensing applications [12][13][14][15][16][17] . MoS 2 has been found to have the potential to overcome the material-dependent shortcomings for biosensing applications 8 .…”