Metallization of dna on the surface

Abstract

A method to develop DNA fibrils with a length more than a few tens of micrometers, oriented in one direction on the n- and p-type silicon surface is described. A new simple and effective technique is proposed to produce silver nanowires by electrochemical reduction of silver ions bound to DNA using the obtained fibrils as a template, as a result of which DNA molecules fixed on the surface of the n-type silicon single crystal are uniformly covered by silver clusters with a size of about 30 nm. The proposed metallization procedure of DNA on the n-type silicon surface has an advantage in comparison with a similar one for macromolecules fixed on freshly cleaved mica, glass surface, and p-type silicon. n-Type silicon is not only a substrate, but also a source of electrons for silver reduction. The absence of an additional chemical component (reducer) principally distinguishes the proposed method from the others currently known. Atomic force microscopic images of fixed DNA molecules and prepared nanowires are obtained.