Carbon composite micro- and nano-tubes-based electrodes for detection of nucleic acids

Abstract

The first aim of this study was to fabricate vertically aligned multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs). MWCNTs were successfully prepared by using plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition. Further, three carbon composite electrodes with different content of carbon particles with various shapes and sizes were prepared and tested on measuring of nucleic acids. The dependences of adenine peak height on the concentration of nucleic acid sample were measured. Carbon composite electrode prepared from a mixture of glassy and spherical carbon powder and MWCNTs had the highest sensitivity to nucleic acids. Other interesting result is the fact that we were able to distinguish signals for all bases using this electrode. © 2011 Prasek et al.