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Updated: Feb 13, 2026

Kinetic Screening of Nuclease Activity using Nucleic Acid Probes
Published on: November 1, 2019
Bromide as a Robust Backfiller on Gold for Precise Control of DNA Conformation and High Stability of Spherical
Biwu Liu1, Peng Wu2, Zhicheng Huang1
1Department of Chemistry, Waterloo Institute for Nanotechnology , University of Waterloo , Waterloo , Ontario N2L 3G1 , Canada.
Abstract:
Functionalization of a gold surface with DNA is often complicated by kinetic traps from unintended DNA base adsorption. Herein, we communicate that Br- serves as a robust backfilling agent displacing selected DNA bases on gold. Traditional thiol backfillers are too strong, while even 300 mM Br- is well tolerated. Conjugates prepared with Br- hybridize 10-fold faster and resist DNA release with better colloidal stability yielding highly sensitive probes. From colorimetric and Raman assays, adsorption affinity ranks as F- < T ≈ Cl- < C < G ≈ Br- < A < I-, allowing Br- to displace nonpoly-A sequences from gold. This well-controlled biointerface will impact biosensing, drug delivery, and directed assembly of nanomaterials.
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