EUROPEAN CONGRESS AND EXHIBITION ON ADVANCED MATERIALS AND PROCESSES - EUROMAT 2021

We report recent work in DNA translocation in 2D nanoslit. 2D nanoslit devices, where two crystals with atomically flat surfaces are separated by only a few nanometers, have attracted considerable attention because their tunable control over the confinement allows for the discovery of unusual transport behavior of gas, water, and ions. Here, the passage of double-stranded DNA molecules is studied through nanoslits fabricated from exfoliated 2D materials, such as graphene or hexagonal boron nitride, and the DNA polymer behavior is examined in this tight confinement. We observe two types of events in the ionic current:1) long current blockades that signal DNA translocation and ) short spikes where DNA enters the slits but withdraws. We use coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulation in order to explain and identify the different polymer configurations in our measured ionic current signal. DNA molecules, including folds and knots in their polymer structure, are observed to slide through the slits with near-uniform velocity without noticeable frictional interactions of DNA with the confining graphene surfaces. We anticipate a new class of 2D-nanoslit devices that will provide unique ways to study polymer physics and enable lab-on-a-chip biotechnology.