Nanowires and their

Biological
Applications
Dr Ahson J Shaikh
Nanowire
• Nanostructure with the diameter in the order of a nanometer (10−9m).
• Also defined as the ratio of the length to width being greater than 1000.
• Structures that have a thickness or diameter constrained to tens of nanometers
or less and an unconstrained length.
• Quantum mechanical effects are present, hence the term "quantum wires“
• Many different types of nanowires exist, including
• superconducting (e.g. Yttrium barium copper oxide)
• Metallic (e.g. Ni, Pt, Au, Ag)
• Semiconducting (e.g. silicon nanowires (SiNWs), InP, GaN)
• Insulating (e.g. SiO2, TiO2).
• Molecular nanowires are composed of repeating molecular units either organic
(e.g. DNA) or inorganic (e.g. Mo6S9−xIx).
• Mo6S9−xIx can have diameter of 0.9 nm and be hundreds of micrometers long.
Nanowire
• Often referred to as one-dimensional (1-D) materials.
• Nanowires have many interesting properties that are not seen in bulk or 3-
D (three-dimensional) materials.
• Electrons in nanowires are quantum confined laterally and thus occupy
energy levels that are different from the traditional continuum of energy
levels or bands found in bulk materials.
• Quantum confinement result in discrete values of electrical conductance
(certain nanowires).
• These discrete values arise from a quantum mechanical restraint on the
number of electrons that can travel through the wire at the nanometer
scale.
• These discrete values are often referred to as the quantum of conductance
Applications
• Important in electronic, opto-electronic and nanoelectromechanical
devices
• Used as additives in advanced composites, for metallic interconnects
in nanoscale quantum devices
• leads for biomolecular nanosensors.
DNA-templated metallic nanowire synthesis
• An emerging field is to use DNA strands as scaffolds (temporary
structure) for metallic nanowire synthesis, used in electronic
components.
• Investigated for biosensing applications, in which the transduction of
a DNA strand into a metallic nanowire can be electrically detected.
• Typically, ssDNA strands are stretched and decorated with metallic
nanoparticles that have been functionalized with short
complementary ssDNA strands.
Sensing of proteins and chemicals using
semiconductor nanowires
• FET (Field Effect Transistors): Devices in which the modulation of
conductance (flow of electrons/holes) in the semiconductor, between
the input (source) and the output (drain) terminals, is controlled by
electrostatic potential variation (gate-electrode) of the charge carriers
in the device conduction channel
Sensing of proteins and chemicals using
semiconductor nanowires
• The methodology of a Bio/Chem-FET is based on the detection of the
local change in charge density, or so-called “field effect”, that
characterizes the recognition event between a target molecule and
the surface receptor.
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fchem.2020.00517/full
Sensing of proteins and chemicals using
semiconductor nanowires
• Change in the surface potential influences the Chem-FET device exactly as
a ‘gate’ voltage does, leading to a detectable and measurable change in the
device conduction. When these devices are fabricated using semiconductor
nanowires as the transistor element the binding of a chemical or biological
species to the surface of the sensor can lead to the depletion or
accumulation of charge carriers in the "bulk" of the nanometer diameter
nanowire i.e. (small cross section available for conduction channels).
• The wire, which serves as a tunable conducting channel, is in close contact
with the sensing environment of the target, leading to a short response
time, along with orders of magnitude increase in the sensitivity of the
device as a result of the huge S/V ratio of the nanowires.
Sensing of proteins and chemicals using
semiconductor nanowires
• While several inorganic semiconducting materials such as Si, Ge, and metal
oxides (e.g. In2O3, SnO2, ZnO, etc.) have been used for the preparation of
nanowires, Si is usually the material of choice when fabricating nanowire
FET-based chemo/biosensors.
• Several examples of the use of silicon nanowire(SiNW) sensing devices
include the ultra sensitive, real-time sensing of biomarker proteins for
cancer, detection of single virus particles, and the detection of nitro-
aromatic explosive materials such as 2,4,6 Tri-nitrotoluene (TNT) in
sensitives superior to these of canines.
• Silicon nanowires could also be used in their twisted form, as
electromechanical devices, to measure intermolecular forces with great
precision.