Title: Adsorption of Nucleotide Monophosphates on Carbon Nanotubes

Speaker: Tiffany Iaconis, NECIS Student, Massachusetts Institute of Technology    

Date/Time: Tuesday, August 8, 2006, 11:30 am – 12:00 noon (PT)

Location: Building 940 Auditorium (Sandia CA), Building 980 Room 95 (Sandia NM)

Brief Abstract: Carbon nanotubes (CNT) are produced as a mixture with varying diameters, helicities, and electronic properties.  Tubes purified with respect to these properties would be much more useful, and have potential for electrical technologies.  DNA can disperse nanotubes into an aqueous medium, facilitating liquid-phase separation techniques.  It has been claimed that DNA-CNT interaction is dependent on the DNA’s primary structure, suggesting specific interactions between individual nucleotides and the nanotubes.  We are studying the strength of these nucleotide-CNT interactions as a function of nucleotide identity, weight ratio, temperature, and salt concentration.  After equilibrating carbon nanotubes with a given nucleotide in salt solution, we observe the depletion of monomers in solution due to adsorption onto the tubes by UV spectroscopy.  We have found that nucleotides with larger, more electron-rich bases have a greater affinity for carbon nanotubes.

CSRI POC: David Robinson, (925) 294-3410