Among the wide variety of types of carbon with potential technological applications, the one-dimensional form, carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have presented significant barriers to incorporation into commercial devices, primarily due to purity and alignment issues. While there is a virtual periodic table (diameter and helicity) of carbon nanotube types, the 6,5 form stands out as a semiconductor to be targeted for development. 6,5 CNT’s display a relatively high fluorescent quantum yield and, under certain synthesis conditions, 6,5’s are also majority products, making them the most likely form to find early commercial applications.<br/>As part of a program seeking to leverage the one-dimensionality of CNTs, we are developing extended one-dimensional DNA based origami platforms for the localization of 6,5 carbon nanotubes, with the expectation of incorporating these tubes as components in systems constructed on origami substrates. We have chosen to approach CNT immobilization on origami via two routes well documented for the case of single origami, utilizing either DNA bridging or protein (Streptavidin) bridging to bind the CNTs to multiple well-defined locations on the substrate. While significant levels of agglomeration are not observed as products of the solution phase reaction of single origami tiles with CNTs, significant agglomeration is observed when either long or shortened 1D origami polymers are reacted with CNTs. This agglomeration is essentially due to cross linking of the extended origami structures to each other intermediated by the CNTs. This agglomeration presents significant barriers to single molecule characterization and thus to implementation of long origami substrates in optical circuits containing CNTs. In order to minimize agglomeration, interfacial assembly experiments have been performed. This approach has been found, through AFM characterization, to essentially eliminate the cross linking, or agglomeration, barrier to progress. It is anticipated that the sequential surface reactions presented here may provide a pathway to high resolution, high density experimentation on single 6,5 carbon nanotubes.

Multi-point alignment of 6,5 carbon nanotubes on DNA origami substrates

2019 Spring National Meeting

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