Plasmon-Driven Ultrafast Photonic PCR

Abstract

PCR is the gold standard for nucleic acid detection, which generally consists of three reaction stages (denaturation, annealing, and extension) and requires three corresponding temperatures. Although the commercialized thermocyclers use a Peltier block to heat the PCR solution in plastic tubes, they often lead to a heterogeneous temperature field and prolonged reaction time (∼hours). To address these issues, a plasmon-driven ultrafast photonic PCR technology has been proposed, which utilizes the photothermal effect of metallic nanomaterials (MNs) to heat the PCR solution under irradiation of incident light; here, the MNs play the role of energy converter from light energy to thermal energy.