Collision of a long DNA molecule with an isolated nanowire

Noritoshi Araki, Eray S. Aydil, Kevin D. Dorfman

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

We provide an experimental test of the universal behavior arising in simulations of the electrophoretic collision of a long DNA molecule with an isolated, thin post. Our experiments take advantage of a robust protocol to embed matrices of circa 100-nm radius ZnO nanowires in a microfluidic channel. The density and height of the nanowires are easily controlled by the seeding and growth conditions. Single-molecule videomicroscopy of Λ-DNA electrophoresis in a sparse nanowire array shows that the average holdup time decays exponentially with the impact parameter, in agreement with simulations. Only at the largest electric field studied here does the hooking probability approach that for an infinitesimally thin post.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)3675-3680
Number of pages6
JournalELECTROPHORESIS
Volume31
Issue number22
DOIs
StatePublished - Nov 2010

Keywords

  • Microfluidics
  • Post
  • Self-assembly

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Biochemistry
  • Clinical Biochemistry

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