DNA Could Lead to Enhanced Electronics

Nanoscience has the potential to play an enormous role in enhancing a range of products, including sensors, photovoltaics and consumer electronics. Scientists in this field have created a multitude of nano scale materials, such as metal nanocrystals, carbon nanotubes and semiconducting nanowires. However, despite their appeal, it has remained an astounding challenge to engineer the orientation and placement of these materials into the desired device architectures that are reproducible in high yields and at low costs.

Jen Cha, a UC San Diego nanoengineering professor, and her team of researchers, have discovered that one way to bridge this gap is to use biomolecules, such as DNA and proteins.

Self-assembled structures are often too small and affordable lithographic patterns are too large. But rationally designed synthetic DNA nanostructures can access length scales between 5 and 100 nanometers and bridge the two systems.

People have created a huge variety of unique and functional nanostructures, but for some intended applications they are worthless unless billions or trillions of individual structures can be placed at the same time, at precise locations. This research can lead researchers to a step closer to solving this very difficult problem.

This work is the first example of how top down lithography can be merged with bottom up self assembly approach to build arrays. That signifies that substrate is patterned by conventional lithography merge it with something that can direct the assembly of even smaller objects, such as those having dimensions between 2 and 20 nanometers. There is a need an intermediate template. For that DNA origami is there which has the ability to bind to something else much smaller and direct their assembly into the desired configuration; there by transistors can be built from carbon nanotubes.

For the last 6years, Cha's research has focused on using biology to engineer the assembly of nanoscale materials for applications in medicine, electronics and energy. One of the limitations of nanoscience is it doesn't allow mass production of products, but Cha's work is focused on trying out how to do that and do it cheaply. Much of her recent work has focused on using DNA to build 2D structures.