Department of Molecular Biophysics

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ILTPE NAS of Ukraine

Lenin ave. 47

tel. +(38057)-340-22-23
fax. +(38057) 345-05-93

Main Investigation Directions

Carbon nanotubes, fullerenes and their hybrids with biomolecules

Scientists working in the Theme frameworks:
The studies are guided by Doctor of Science Karachevtsev V.A.
The staff of the group: Stepanian S.G. (senior scientist), Gladchenko G.O. (senior scientist), Plokhotnichenko A.M. (scientist), Glamazda A.Yu. (scientist), Leontiev V.S. (leading engineer), Linnik A.S. (sector chief), Zarudnev E.S. and Karachevtsev M.V. (post-graduates).

The first line: Leontiev V.S., Karachevtsev V.A., Gladchenko G.O., Stepanian S.G.
The second line: Linnik A.S., Zarudnev E.S., Karachevtsev M.V., Plokhotnichenko A.M, Glamazda A.Yu.

Studies on physical properties of carbon nanotubes, fullerenes and their hybrids with biomolecules are carried out in the following directions:

  • Physical properties of nanohybrids based on carbon nanotubes: hybrid structures and energy of interactions between their components.
  • Peculiarities in adsorption of organic and biological molecules, various DNA fragments on the surface of carbon nanotubes.
  • Optical properties (resonance combinational scattering, absorption, luminescence) of films and suspensions of single-walled carbon nanotubes in various surroundings, at room and low temperatures.
  • Aggregation of single-walled carbon nanotubes induced by biopolymers and biomolecules in aqueous suspensions.
  • Optical properties of photopolymerized fullerene films.

The most important scientific results obtained by the group:

  • Adsorption of organic molecules and components of nucleic acids to the surface of the single-walled carbon nanotube (SWNT) and graphene has been studied. A row of stabilities has been revealed for these hybrids, being kept for graphene as well.
    • S.G. Stepanian, M.V. Karachevtsev, A.Yu. Glamazda, V.A. Karachevtsev, L. Adamowicz “Raman Spectroscopy and First-Principles Study of Interaction between Nucleic Acid Bases and Carbon Nanotubes” (J Physical Chemistry B, submitted).
    • M.V. Karachevtsev, O.S. Lytvyn, S.G. Stepanian, V.S. Leontiev, L. Adamowicz and V.A. Karachevtsev “SWNT-DNA and SWNT-polyC Hybrids: AFM Study and Computer Modeling” J. Nanoscience and Nanotechnology 8, 1473–1480 (2008)
    • S.G. Stepanian, M.V. Karachevtsev, A.Yu. Glamazda, V.A.  Karachevtsev, L. Adamowicz “Stacking interaction of cytosine with carbon nanotubes: MP2, DFT and Raman spectroscopy study” Chem Phys Letters 459, 153–158 (2008)
  • Structures of hybrids formed with organic molecules pyrene and naphthalene and SWNT in films have been ascertained, and energies of interactions in such hybrids have been calculated. It was shown that for flat π-conjugated molecules their interaction with the nanotube is mainly conditioned with the molecule area and the nanotube diameter.
    • S.G. Stepanian, V.A. Karachevtsev, A.Yu. Glamazda, U. Dettlaff-Weglikowska, L. Adamowicz “Combined Raman Scattering and ab initio investigation of the interaction between pyrene and carbon SWNT” Molecular Physics 101, 2609 (2003).
    • V.A. Karachevtsev, A.Yu. Glamazda, U. Dettlaff-Weglikowska, V.S. Leontiev, A.V. Peschanskii, À.Ì. Plokhotnichenko, S.G. Stepanian and S. Roth “Noncovalent functionalization of single-walled carbon nanotubes for biological application: Raman and NIR absorption spectroscopy” in “Spectroscopy of Emerging Materials” ed. by Faulques E. C. et al.,139-150, (2004).
  • Nucleic acid adsorption and hybridization (the formation of the double helix) on the SWNT surface have been investigated. It is shown that the helix formed on the nanotube is defective. This is due to a greater energy of the polymer adsorption to the carbon surface, if to compare with the energy of the hydrogen bonds formed in the complementary pair.
    • V.A. Karachevtsev, G.O. Gladchenko, M.V. Karachevtsev, V.A. Valeev, V.S. Leontiev and O.S. Lytvyn “Adsorption of poly(rA) on the carbon nanotube surface and its hybridization with poly(rU)” Chemical Physics and Physical Chemistry 9, 2872-2881 (2008)
    • V.A. Karachevtsev, G.O. Gladchenko, M.V. Karachevtsev, A.Yu. Glamazda,V.S. Leontiev, O.S. Lytvyn and U. Dettlaff-Weglikowska “RNA-wrapped carbon nanotubes aggregation induced by polymer hybridization” Mol. Cryst. Liq. Cryst. 497, 339-351 (2008)
  • A model has been proposed for adsorption of the double-stranded DNA fragment to the SWNT surface. According to the model, the fragment attaches to the nanotube by means of π-π-stacking with nitrogen bases of single-stranded ends which serve as special kind of “the anchor” for the whole polymer.
    • G.O. Gladchenko, M.V. Karachevtsev, V.S. Leontiev, V.A. Valeev, A.Yu. Glamazda, À.Ì. Plokchotnichenko, S.G. Stepanian Interaction of fragmented double-stranded DNA with carbon nanotubes in aqueous solution. Molecular Physics, 104 (N20-21), 3193-3201 (2006)
  • A new way has been proposed and realized for keeping the enzyme activity on the nanotube. The method is based on the application of the polymeric (DNA) layer between the nanotube and enzyme.
    • V.A. Karachevtsev, A.Yu. Glamazda, V.S. Leontiev, O.S. Lytvyn and U. Dettlaff-Weglikowska “Glucose oxidase adsorbed onto DNA-wrapped SWNT: Spectroscopy and AFM study” Chem Phys Letters 435, 104-108 (2007)
    • V.A. Karachevtsev, A.Yu. Glamazda, M.V. Karachevtsev, O.S. Lytvyn and U. Dettlaff-Weglikowska “Emission of carbon nanotube-DNA-GOX bionanohybrid for glucose detection” Proc.SPIE v.6796 p. 679625 (7 pages)(2007)
  • Studies on resonance combination scattering (RCS) of nanotubes at low temperatures revealed the mechanical stiffness of the nanotube construction, which became apparent in small shifts of spectral lines with the temperature decrease from 300 to 5 K. The minimal width of the breathing mode line in RCS spectrum at 5 K does not exceed 3 cm-1.
    • V.A. Karachevtsev, A.Yu. Glamazda, U. Dettlaff-Weglikowska, V.S. Kurnosov, E.D. Obraztsova, A.V. Peschanskii, V.V. Eremenko, S. Roth “Raman spectroscopy of HiPCO single-walled carbon nanotubes at 300 and 5 K” Carbon 41, 1567 (2003).
  • • It is shown that DNA adsorbed to nanotubes prevents effectively from their aggregation into bundles both in suspension and films, which is evidenced with luminescence of single semiconducting nanotubes in the near-IR range.
    • V.A. Karachevtsev, A.Yu. Glamazda, U. Dettlaff-Weglikowska, V.S. Leontiev, P.V. Mateichenko, S. Roth, and A.M. Rao “Spectroscopic and SEM studies of SWNTs:Polymer Solutions and Films” Carbon 44, 1292-97 (2006).
  • A new method for obtaining photopolymerized fullerene films has been proposed and realized. It lies in UV irradiation of the films upon their growing. It is shown that fullerene films can be applied as membranes for gas separation.
    • V.A. Karachevtsev, A.Yu. Glamazda, V.A. Pashinskaya, A.V. Peschanskii, A.M. Plokhotnichenko, and V.I. Fomin “Luminescence and Raman scattering of nonpolymerized and photopolymerized fullerene films at 297 and 5 K” Low Temp. Phys. 33, 704 (2007)
    • V.A. Karachevtsev, À.Ì. Plokhotnichenko , V.A. Pashynska, A.Yu. Glamazda, O.M. Vovk, A.M. Rao “Permeability of C60 films deposited on polycarbonatesyloxane to N2, O2, CH4, He gases” Applied Surface Science 253, 3062-65 (2007)
    • S.G. Stepanian, V.A. Karachevtsev, À.Ì. Plokhotnichenko, L.K. Adamowicz and A.M. Rao “Infrared spectra of photopolymerized C60 films: Experimental and DFT study” J. Phys. Chem. B 110, 15769-15775 (2006)
    • V.A. Karachevtsev, P.V. Mateichenko, N.Yu. Nedbailo, A.V. Peschanskii, À.Ì. Plokhotnichenko, O.M. Vovk, E.N. Zubarev and A.M. Rao “Effective photopolymerization of C60 films under simultaneously deposition and UV light irradiation: spectroscopy and morphology study” Carbon 42, 2091-2098 (2004)

Facilities:

  1. Raman spectroscopic set-up based on DFS-52 (LOMO) double spectrometer (350-850 nm, reverse dispersion 5A/mm) excited with Ar ion laser, He-Ne laser and DPSS green lasers, thermocooled CCD camera or PMT for spectra detection, (300-5 K).
  2. NIR spectrometer (1100-1500 nm) with signal detection by InGaAs photodiode and PbS film (1100-2400 nm) cooled till 77 K (liquid N2), (300-4.2 K).
  3. Luminescence set-up based on DFS-12 (LOMO) double spectrometer (300-1200 nm, equipped with thermocooled NIR PMT) excited with DPSS green laser, (300-1.2 K).
  4. HITACHI-356 spectrometer (resolution 0.1 nm, 200-1100 nm), (300-5 K).
  5. IR spectrometer (SPECORD IR 75, 4000-400 cm-1, resolution 1-3 cm-1) (300-5 K).
  6. Time-resolved luminescence set-up (300-800 nm) with of emission registration by photomultiplier working in single-photon mode (1 nc time resolution), excitation with different laser diodes or laser, (300-1.5 K).
  7. Equipment of chemical laboratory for the organic synthesis and purification.
  8. Magnetic MI-1201 (Selmi) mass-spectrometer (77-300 K) with FAB method ionization.
  9. Ultracentrifuge (120 000 g, Superspeed -65, MSE, GB).
  10. Dielectric electrophoresis
  11. Commercial UHV device (vacuum 10-6 Pa) for films preparation by high vacuum deposition methods.
  12. Nanoscope D3000 atomic force microscope (AFM) (Digital Instruments) (in collaboration).