Oligonucleotides surface coverage

Letsinger R. Elghanian G. Viswanadham, a fluorescence-based method for determining the surface coverage and hybridization efficiency of thiol-capped oligonucleotides bound to gold thin films and nanoparticles. Analytical Chemistry 2000, 72, 5535-5541. 

This process gives sharp voltammetric peaks that offer e.g. preeise surface coverage determination at well-defined surfaees. Use of single-erystal, say Au(lll)-surfaees has substantiated that densely paeked thiolated oligonucleotide monolayers, almost resembling a moleeular brush , ef section 4 are formed.A similar conclusion was reported by Palacek and associates who exploited the intrinsically atomically planar nature of a liquid mercury electrode surfaee. The notion of two-dimensional condensation has been invoked for sueh phenomena. 

When oligonucleotides are designed and analyzed using the conditions described above, it is possible to achieve extremely sensitive detection of labeled oligonucleotides using metal nanoparticles [36, 43]. It is possible to achieve quantitative, linear SERRS responses when the concentration of the labeled oligonucleotide is kept below monolayer coverage of the nanoparticle surface. 

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