Electrochemical Charge Transfer Through the Supramolecular Discogen-DNA Hybrid Multi-layered Assembly

Electrochemical Charge Transfer Through the Supramolecular Discogen-DNA Hybrid Multi-layered Assembly

Rakesh K. Pandey,Himani Pandey,Alpana Nayak

Abstract

A multilayered hybrid assembly of a discotic liquid crystal and DNA is found to show interesting electron transfer behavior. The film acts as a conducting bridge helping the transfer of electrons between the metal and ferrocene redox probe while not allowing the electron transfer for ferrocyanide/ferricyanide redox couple.

Abstract

In the present work, charge transfer phenomenon through the films of an ionic discotic liquid crystal (discogen) that is pyridinium tethered with hexaalkoxytriphenylene (PyTp) and its complex with DNA (PyTp-DNA) was studied by using electrochemical methods. The PyTp and PyTp-DNA hybrid films were first formed at the air-water interface and then transferred onto the gold substrates by Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) technique. Electrochemical measurements carried out on these films in three different redox systems, namely, ferrocene, hexaammineruthenium (III), and ferrocyanide, revealed that the ferrocene and the hexaammineruthenium (III) systems allow the electron transfer reaction between redox probes and metal, whereas the ferrocyanide system completely blocks it. The electrochemical response of the films, in the former two systems, has been attributed to the bridge mediated electron transfer process, whereas, in the ferrocyanide system, the impermeability of redox ions through these LB films is responsible for the complete blocking of electron transfer. Based on the observed results, this work highlights the possibility of novel charge transfer properties of discogen-DNA type hybrid films for applications in molecular electronics.

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