Electrical and Morphological Characterization of DNA Blockcopolymer Micelles

该项目的目的是合成可编程的胶束系统，表现出聚合物核和DNA壳，并表征其形态和电性能。这些球形核-壳纳米颗粒的产生是通过合成由以线性方式连接的寡核苷酸（ODN）片段和疏水性合成聚合物嵌段组成的DNA嵌段共聚物来实现的。合成聚合物的电子性质将被选择为绝缘体、p型或n型半导体或导体。由于生物有机杂化材料的两亲性，发生相分离，并形成具有DNA冠和含有疏水性聚合物片段的核的球形胶束。原子力显微镜和导电原子力显微镜将被用来关联的结构与单一的生物有机纳米粒子的电性能。三个和四个电极的设备配置将被构建，以测量这些生物有机纳米粒子从低温到环境温度的电性能。这些装置将被设计成纳米间隙配置，以捕获单个颗粒或颗粒阵列。生物有机纳米颗粒的组装将由DNA壳层的自识别特性控制。在了解这些粒子的导电性的性质后，将检查它们用于DNA检测的能力。

The aim of the project is to synthesize programmable micellar systems exhibiting a polymeric core and a shell of DNA and to characterize their morphological and electrical properties. The generation of these spherical core-shell nanoparticles is achieved by synthesizing DNA block copolymers composed of an oligonucleotide (ODN) segment and a hydrophobic synthetic polymer block which are connected in a linear fashion. The electronic properties of the synthetic polymer will be chosen to be an insulator, a p- or n-type semiconductor, or a conductor. Due to the amphiphilicity of the biologically organic hybrid materials, phase separation takes place, and spherical micelles with a corona of DNA and a core containing the hydrophobic polymer fragment are formed. Atomic force microscopy and conducting atomic force microscopy will be used to correlate the structure with the electrical properties of single bioorganic nanoparticles. Three- and four-electrode device configurations will be constructed in order to measure the electrical properties of these bioorganic nanoparticles from cryogenic to ambient temperatures. The devices will be designed in a nanogap configuration in order to trap a single particle or arrays of particles. The assembly of the bioorganic nanoparticles will be controlled by the self recognition properties of the DNA shell. After understanding the nature of conductivity of these particles their ability for DNA detection will be examined.