Understanding DNA-Graphene Interaction Towards Scalable Nanomanufacturing

本项目的研究目标是研究石墨烯和自组装DNA之间的基本相互作用，从而建立一个新的制造平台，可以创建定制设计的石墨烯纳米结构。任意设计尺寸和形状的DNA折纸(折纸)结构将被分层组装，并将作为模板/掩膜使用自上而下的制造方法定义石墨烯纳米几何形状。这项研究将研究DNA-石墨烯界面的DNA组装动力学和非共价化学。将评估边缘化学和石墨烯几何形状对所得到的纳米结构的电光性能的影响。这项研究的结果将产生新的可扩展的纳米制造策略，用于定制设计的石墨烯和其他电子材料，否则无法以高通量、大规模并行的方式制造这些材料。自下而上的方法将展示任意几何形状的前所未有的10纳米以下的特征，同时利用传统自上而下方法的重复性和可扩展性。该计划将把研究工作与教育和推广活动结合起来，旨在促进公众对生物分子纳米制造的理解。这些活动将为研究生和本科生提供在多学科环境中学习和从事尖端科学和工程的机会，并增加妇女和代表性不足的少数族裔学生的参与。

The research objective of this project is to study fundamental interactions between graphene and self-assembling DNA towards a new manufacturing platform that can create custom-designed graphene nanostructures. DNA origami (paper-folding) structures of arbitrarily designed sizes and shapes will be hierarchically assembled and will be explored as templates/masks to define graphene nano-geometry using top-down fabrication methods. This research will investigate DNA assembly kinetics and non-covalent chemistry at the DNA-graphene interface. The effects of edge chemistry and graphene geometry on the electro-optical properties of resulting nanostructures will be assessed. Theoretical modeling and numerical computation will be performed to guide experiment.The outcome of this research will generate new scalable nanofabrication strategies for custom-designed graphene and other electronic materials, which cannot be manufactured otherwise in a high-throughput, massively parallel fashion. The bottom-up approach will demonstrate unprecedented sub-10-nm features of arbitrary geometries, while exploiting the repeatability and scalability of conventional top-down methods. This program will integrate the research efforts with educational and outreach activities designed to advance the public understanding of biomolecular nanomanufacturing. These activities will provide opportunities for graduate and undergraduate students to learn and conduct cutting-edge science and engineering in a multidisciplinary environment, and increase participation of women and underrepresented minority students.