Selective Response of Mesoporous Silicon to Adsorbants with Nitro Groups

We demonstrate that the electronic structure of mesoporous silicon is affected by adsorption of nitro-based explosive molecules in a compound-selective manner. This selective response is demonstrated by probing the adsorption of two nitro-based molecular explosives (trinitrotoluene and cyclotrimethylenetrinitramine) and a nonexplosive nitro-based arematic molecule (nitrotoluene) on mesoporous silicon using soft X-ray spec- troscopy. The Si atoms strongly interact with adsorbed molecules to form Si-O and Si-N bonds, as evident from the large shifts in emission energy present in the Si L2,3 X-ray emission spectroscopy (XES) measurements. Furthermore, we find that the energy gap of mesoporous silicon changes depending on the adsorbant, as estimated from the Si L2,3 XES and 2p X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) measurements. Our ab initio molecular dynamics calculations of model compounds suggest that these changes are due to spontaneous breaking of the nitro groups upon contacting surface Si atoms. This compound-selective change in electronic structure may provide a powerful tool for the detection and identification of trace quantities of airborne explosive molecules.Comment: 27 pages, 9 figure

Lipid-Based Passivation in Nanofluidics

Stretching DNA in nanochannels is a useful tool for direct, visual studies of genomic DNA at the single molecule level. To facilitate the study of the interaction of linear DNA with proteins in nanochannels, we have implemented a highly effective passivation scheme based on lipid bilayers. We demonstrate virtually complete long-term passivation of nanochannel surfaces to a range of relevant reagents, including streptavidin-coated quantum dots, RecA proteins, and RecA-DNA complexes. We show that the performance of the lipid bilayer is significantly better than that of standard bovine serum albumin-based passivation. Finally, we show how the passivated devices allow us to monitor single DNA cleavage events during enzymatic degradation by DNase I. We expect that our approach will open up for detailed, systematic studies of a wide range of protein-DNA interactions with high spatial and temporal resolution

Robust polymer colloidal crystal photonic bandgap structures

New polymeric matrices are presented that embed organic colloidal crystalline arrays (CCA's) into mechanically stable photonic bandgap structures. We achieved these new matrices either by dispersing polystyrene CCA's with high molecular weight hydrophilic polymer [poly(ethylene glycol); (PEG)] or through in situ polymerization of hydrophilic monomers (acrylamide and acrylate functional PEG variants) about the CCA. CCA-dispersed PEG matrices exhibited strong red opalescence with a narrow peak at 614 nm and were sufficiently rigid to withstand repeated mechanical deformation. Visible photonic bandgaps also were observed from free-standing CCA composites with cross-linked poly(N, N-dimethylacrylamide) matrices. The results demonstrate the technological potential for robust organic photonic crystals