Regensburg 2016 – wissenschaftliches Programm
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MM: Fachverband Metall- und Materialphysik
MM 42: Functional materials III: Actuators, sensors and functional devices
MM 42.6: Vortrag
Mittwoch, 9. März 2016, 17:15–17:30, H53
Tunneling current calculations across diamondoid-functionalized electrodes: impact on biosensing — •Ganesh Sivaraman1, Rodrigo G. Amorim2, Ralph H. Scheicher3, and Maria Fyta1 — 1Institute for Computational Physics, University of Stuttgart, Germany — 2Departamento de Física, Universidade Federal Fluminense, RJ, Brazil — 3Department of Physics and Astronomy, Materials Theory, Uppsala University, Sweden
Attaching specific molecules to a pair of opposing metal electrodes is known to enhance tunneling current signals measured across them. This functionalization of electrodes can make them more selective in sensing and detecting DNA molecules translocating between the electrode gap. Diamondoids are tiny hydrogen-terminated diamond-like cages which can be produced in a variety of sizes and can be selectively chemically modified, showing a high potential as functionalization units. Here, we focus on the quantum-transport properties of diamondoid-functionalized Au(111) break-junctions. for the functionalization, different diamondoids are considered and the tunneling current signals arising from different DNA units (the nucleobases) in the break-junction are investigated. We report on the read-out characteristics and the sensitivity of the functionalized electrodes to identify the four DNA nucleobases and their mutations. Such electrodes can be embedded in nanopores which are able to electrophoretically thread DNA. Our results indicate that a device based on diamondoid-functionalized electrodes could have a high potential in sequencing DNA with a strong impact in nanopore research and biosensing methodologies.