Mercury ion detection technique using KPFM

KPFM을 통한 수은이온 검출 방법

For the several decades, various nanomaterials are broadly used in industry and research. With the growth of nanotechnology, the study of nanotoxicity is being accelerated. Particularly, mercury ion is widely used in real life. Because the mercury is representative high toxic material, it is highly recommended to detect the mercury ion. In previous reported work, thymine-thymine mismatches (T-T) capture mercury ion and create very stable base pair ($T-Hg^{2+}-T$). Here, we performed the high sensitive sensing method for direct label free detection of mercury ions and DNA binding using Kelvin Probe Force Microscope (KPFM). In this method, 30 base pairs of thymine (T-30) is used for mercury specific DNA binding ($T-Hg^{2+}-T$). KPFM is able to detect the mercury ion because there is difference between bare T-30 DNA and mercury mediated DNA ($T-Hg^{2+}-T$).