Abstract
Metal-mediated base-paired DNA has long been investigated for basic scientific pursuit and for nanoelectronics purposes. Particularly attractive in these domains is the Ag+-intercalated polycytosine DNA duplex. Extensive studies of this molecule have led to our current understanding of its self-assembly properties, high thermodynamic and structural stability, and high longitudinal conductivity. However, a high-resolution morphological characterization of long Ag+-intercalated polycytosine DNA has hitherto not been carried out. Furthermore, the electronic level structure of this molecule has not been studied before. Here we present a scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy study of this intriguing nanowire. Its temperature-independent morphological and electronic properties suggest substantial stability, while its emergent electronic levels and energy gap provide the basis for its high conductivity.
Original language | American English |
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Pages (from-to) | 4505-4511 |
Number of pages | 7 |
Journal | Nano Letters |
Volume | 20 |
Issue number | 6 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 10 Jun 2020 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This work was supported by the Israel Science Foundation (ISF Grants 1589/14 and 2556/17) and the Minerva Centre for Biohybrid Complex Systems. D.P. is thankful for the Etta and Paul Schankerman Chair of Molecular Biomedicine.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 American Chemical Society.
Keywords
- DNA nanoelectronics
- STM
- metallo-base pair
- scanning tunneling spectroscopy
- silver ions