Gate-Voltage-Controlled Threading DNA into Transistor Nanopores

J Phys Chem B. 2018 Jan 18;122(2):827-833. doi: 10.1021/acs.jpcb.7b06932. Epub 2017 Oct 5.

Abstract

We present a simple method for DNA translocation driven by applying AC voltages, such as square and sawtooth waves, on an embedded thin film as a gate electrode inside of a dielectric nanopore, without applying a conventional bias voltage externally across the pore membrane. Square waveforms on a gate can drive a single DNA molecule into a nanopore, which often returns from the pore, causing an oscillation across the membrane. An optimized sawtooth-like negative voltage pulse on the gate can thread a fraction of a DNA molecule into a pore after a single pulse. This trapped DNA molecule continues to finish its translocation slowly through the pore. The DNA's slow speed was comparable to previous findings of the escaping DNA speed from a nanopore estimated by the Smoluchowski equation with excluded-volume interactions of a long-chain molecule and electrophoresis by extremely low electric fields. This simple scheme, controlling DNA molecules only by gate potential modulation at a nanopore, will provide an additional method to thread, translocate, or oscillate a single biomolecule at a gated nanopore.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • DNA / chemistry*
  • Electrochemistry / methods*
  • Electrodes
  • Nanopores*
  • Patch-Clamp Techniques

Substances

  • DNA