Interaction of nucleobases with silicon nanowires: A first-principles study

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

11-20-2012

Department

Department of Physics

Abstract

The interaction between the nucleic acid bases - adenine (A), guanine (G), cytosine (C), thymine (T) and uracil (U) - and a hydrogen-passivated silicon nanowire (SiNW) is investigated within the framework of density functional theory. The calculated binding energy of the nucleic acid bases with the SiNW shows the order: G > A≈C≈T≈U. This suggests that the interaction strength of a hydrogen passivated SiNW with the nucleic acid bases is nearly the same-G being an exception. The electronic structure of the nucleobase-SiNW complex is used to further characterize the nature of the interaction showing that it is likely electrostatic in nature.

Publication Title

Chemical Physics Letters

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