Thermoelectric effect and its dependence on molecular length and sequence in single DNA molecules

• Published in: Nature communications 2016-04, Vol.7 (1), p.11294-11294, Article 11294
• Main Authors: Li, Yueqi, Xiang, Limin, Palma, Julio L., Asai, Yoshihiro, Tao, Nongjian
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 639/638/440/56; 639/638/92/147; 639/925/926; Algorithms; Base Sequence; Circular Dichroism; DNA - chemistry; DNA - metabolism; Electric Conductivity; Electrophoresis, Polyacrylamide Gel; Humanities and Social Sciences; Models, Chemical; Models, Molecular; multidisciplinary; Nucleic Acid Conformation; Nucleic Acid Denaturation; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Temperature; Transition Temperature
• ISSN: 2041-1723; 2041-1723
• DOI: 10.1038/ncomms11294

Studying the thermoelectric effect in DNA is important for unravelling charge transport mechanisms and for developing relevant applications of DNA molecules. Here we report a study of the thermoelectric effect in single DNA molecules. By varying the molecular length and sequence, we tune the charge transport in DNA to either a hopping- or tunnelling-dominated regimes. The thermoelectric effect is small and insensitive to the molecular length in the hopping regime. In contrast, the thermoelectric effect is large and sensitive to the length in the tunnelling regime. These findings indicate that one may control the thermoelectric effect in DNA by varying its sequence and length. We describe the experimental results in terms of hopping and tunnelling charge transport models. Understanding the thermoelectric effect of materials and molecules is important for understanding their charge transport properties. Here, the authors study the thermoelectric effect in single DNA molecules and show that the charge carrier properties are dependent on both the DNA length and sequence.