The near-infrared optical properties of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) are sensitive to their surrounding environment. There is increasing interest in developing SWNT-based optical probes to detect environmentally relevant metal ions. In this work, the redox chemistry of double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) encased SWNTs with cupric ions has been studied for optical sensing. It is observed that the optical absorption of the first interband transitions of dsDNA-semiconducting SWNTs is extremely sensitive to cupric ions.  The spectral intensity is suppressed by cupric ions, which can be recovered by tuning the pH to more basic levels. The detection limit for cupric ions and the reaction mechanisms have been studied and will be discussed in details in this work.

Double-stranded DNA encased single-walled carbon nanotubes for optical sensing of cupric ions

249th National Meeting (2015)

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