Piezotronic Effect Enhanced Label-Free Detection of DNA Using a Schottky-Contacted ZnO Nanowire Biosensor

Xiaotao Cao; Xia Cao; Huijuan Guo; Tao Li; Yang Jie; Ning Wang; Zhong Lin Wang

doi:10.1021/acsnano.6b04121

Piezotronic Effect Enhanced Label-Free Detection of DNA Using a Schottky-Contacted ZnO Nanowire Biosensor

ACS Nano. 2016 Aug 23;10(8):8038-44. doi: 10.1021/acsnano.6b04121. Epub 2016 Aug 3.

Authors

Xiaotao Cao¹, Xia Cao¹, Huijuan Guo¹, Tao Li¹, Yang Jie¹, Ning Wang, Zhong Lin Wang^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Beijing Institute of Nanoenergy and Nanosystems, Chinese Academy of Sciences, National Center for Nanoscience and Technology (NCNST) , Beijing 100083, P. R. China.
² School of Material Science and Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology , Atlanta, Georgia 30332-0245, United States.

PMID: 27478905
DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.6b04121

Abstract

A sensitive and in situ selective label-free DNA sensor based on a Schottky-contacted ZnO nanowire (NW) device has been developed and utilized to detect the human immunodeficiency virus 1 gene in this work. Piezotronic effect on the performance of the DNA sensor is studied by measuring its output current under different compressive strains and target complementary DNA concentrations. By applying a -0.59% compressive strain to a ZnO NW-based DNA sensor, the relative current response is greatly enhanced by 454%. A theoretical model is proposed to explain the observed behaviors of the DNA sensor. This study provides a piezotronically modified method to effectively improve the overall performance of the Schottky-contacted ZnO NW-based DNA sensor.

Keywords: DNA sensor; ZnO nanowire; label-free; piezotronic effect.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Biosensing Techniques*
DNA / analysis*
Humans
Nanowires*
Zinc Oxide

Substances

DNA
Zinc Oxide