Capture and manipulation of hybrid DNAs by carbon nanotube bundles

When approached from both sides, a piece of single-duplex-single DNA may be drawn into the inlets of two bundles of carbon nanotubes. This provides opportunities to manipulate the DNA by two bundles of nanotubes. The capture and manipulation processes envisaged above are simulated by molecular dynamics in this work. The radius of the carbon nanotube and the ambient temperature show the effects on the spontaneous insertion of DNA strands. This procedure, if successful, could be used for capturing expectant sdsDNAs, with subsequent manipulation to pull or to unzip the captured DNA.