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，展示DNA的聚合物核和壳，并表征它们的形态和电学性质。这些球形核壳纳米粒子的生成是通过合成DNA嵌段共聚物来实现的，该嵌段共聚物由一个寡核苷酸(ODN)片段和一个疏水的合成聚合物片段组成，它们以线性方式连接在一起。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，发生了相分离，形成了带有DNA日冕的球形胶束和含有疏水聚合物片段的核心。原子力显微镜和导电原子力显微镜将被用来将结构与单个生物有机纳米颗粒的电学性质相关联。将构建三电极和四电极装置配置，以测量这些生物有机纳米颗粒从低温到常温的电学性质。这些设备将被设计成纳米间隙配置，以捕获单个粒子或粒子阵列。生物有机纳米颗粒的组装将受到DNA外壳的自我识别特性的控制。在了解了这些颗粒的导电性之后，我们将检查它们检测DNA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.