A fundamental study of photoluminescence modulation from DNA-wrapped single-walled carbon nanotubes

In this study, we investigated the interaction of base sequence-assigned single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) molecules with the surfaces of single-walled carbon nanotube (SWNT)-thymine (T30)/cytosine (C30) hybrids (T30/C30-SWNT), by measuring the modulation of near-infrared (NIR) photoluminescence (PL). Significant PL shifts were observed when T30/C30-SWNTs were reacted with 30-mers of adenine (A30)/guanine (G30). In contrast, when non-complementary ssDNA was used, no significant energy shift was observed in the PL modulation except when T30-SWNTs were reacted with G30. Furthermore, atomic force microscopy (AFM) measurements revealed that the average heights of the T30-SWNTs and C30-SWNTs, after reaction with A30 were 2 ± 0.6 and 1.1 ± 0.3 nm, respectively. This result was in good agreement with the results of PL measurements. Our data reveal that DNA hybridization could be detected by measuring PL from SWNTs, without the use of fluorescent molecules. This leads to the possibility of developing nanotube-based photoelectric conversion or optical switch devices driven by organic molecules.