Self-assembled biological structures have precise three-dimensional geometries, with key geometrical parameters exceeding the resolution limit of conventional lithography. Using self-assembled biomolecules as templates, controlled synthesis of metallic, carbon-based, and oxide materials has been achieved with prescribed geometries. However, the performance of bio-templated electronics often suffers from the deficient transport performance, as well as the lack if long-range orientation aligment, thus limiting the application of bio-templated fabrication in high-performance electronics.
To this end, the research group of Dr. Wei Sun in the School of Electronics of Peking University, in collaboration with Professor Zhi Zhu's group at Xiamen University, Dr. Jianshi Tang's group at Tsinghua University, and Dr. Ming Zheng at National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), explored the rational composition engineering at DNA-CNT interfaces and demonstrated large-area orientation alignment for DNA-templated CNT arrays.
Dr. Sun with other group members used parallel carbon nanotube arrays, assembled on DNA templates as a model system, to study the effects of interfacial biomolecular composition to device performance. They developed an interface engineering method based on a rinsing-after-fixing strategy to effectively remove impurities such as metal ions and biomolecules at the interface without changing the CNT alignment. After interfacial engineering, the DNA-templated CNT transistors exhibited high on-state performance and fast on/off switching, thus demonstrating the application potential of precise bio-templates in high-performance transistors. Based on the spatially confinement from PMMA cavities, they also developed a new method for aligning DNA-templated CNT arrays and explored the key factors that determine the accuracy of orientation alignment. This work has the potential to realize large-area electronics via bio-templates, at the intersection of high-performance electronics and biomolecular self-assembly. Besides, the high-performance bio-electronic hybrid devices integrate electrical properties with bio-responsibility, which can be further applied to future biosensors and actuators.
On May 22, 2020, this research work is published online, titled "DNA-directed nanofabrication of high-performance carbon nanotube field-effect transistors" inScience (Science, 368, 6493, pp. 878-881). Mengyu Zhao, a 2018 PhD student in the School of Electronics, is the first author, Yahong Chen, a 2016 PhD student in the College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Xiamen University, is the co-first author, and Wei Sun and Zhi Zhu are corresponding authors.
The research work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China and the other internal funding supports from Peking University.
Click on the link to access the full text of the article: https://science.sciencemag.org/content/368/6493/878
Fig. High-performance DNA template-based transistors constructed by optimizing DNA-CNT interface composition (LEFT)
Large-scale arrays aligned over centimeter-scale substrate (RIGHT)
