Talebi Sara, Daraghma Souhad M A, Subramaniam Ramesh T, Bhassu Subha, Gnana Kumar Georgepeter, Periasamy Vengadesh
Low Dimensional Materials Research Centre (LDMRC), Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Centre for Ionics University of Malaya, Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
ACS Omega. 2020 Apr 1;5(14):7802-7808. doi: 10.1021/acsomega.9b03831. eCollection 2020 Apr 14.
Proteins have been increasingly suggested as suitable candidates for the fabrication of biological computers and other biomolecular-based electronic devices mainly due to their interesting structure-related intrinsic electrical properties. These natural biopolymers are environmentally friendly substitutes for conventional inorganic materials and find numerous applications in bioelectronics. Effective manipulation of protein biomolecules allows for accurate fabrication of nanoscaled device dimensions for miniaturized electronics. The prerequisite, however, demands an interrogation of its various electronic properties prior to understanding the complex charge transfer mechanisms in protein molecules, the knowledge of which will be crucial toward development of such nanodevices. One significantly preferred method in recent times involves the utilization of solid-state sensors where interactions of proteins could be investigated upon contact with metals such as gold. Therefore, in this work, proteins (hemoglobin and collagen) were integrated within a two-electrode system, and the resulting electronic profiles were investigated. Interestingly, structure-related electronic profiles representing semiconductive-like behaviors were observed. These characteristic electronic profiles arise from the metal (Au)-semiconductor (protein) junction, clearly demonstrating the formation of a Schottky junction. Further interpretation of the electronic behavior of proteins was done by the calculation of selected solid-state parameters. For example, the turn-on voltage of hemoglobin was measured to occur at a lower turn-on voltage, indicating the possible influence of the hem group present as a cofactor in each subunit of this tetrameric protein.
蛋白质越来越多地被认为是制造生物计算机和其他基于生物分子的电子设备的合适候选材料，主要是因为它们有趣的与结构相关的固有电学性质。这些天然生物聚合物是传统无机材料的环保替代品，并在生物电子学中有众多应用。对蛋白质生物分子的有效操控能够精确制造用于小型化电子设备的纳米级器件尺寸。然而，在此之前需要先研究其各种电子性质，以便理解蛋白质分子中复杂的电荷转移机制，而这方面的知识对于此类纳米器件的开发至关重要。近年来一种非常受欢迎的方法是利用固态传感器，通过它可以研究蛋白质与诸如金等金属接触时的相互作用。因此，在这项工作中，将蛋白质（血红蛋白和胶原蛋白）集成到双电极系统中，并对由此产生的电子特性进行了研究。有趣的是，观察到了代表类似半导体行为的与结构相关的电子特性。这些特征性电子特性源自金属（金）-半导体（蛋白质）结，清楚地表明形成了肖特基结。通过计算选定的固态参数对蛋白质的电子行为做了进一步解释。例如，测得血红蛋白的开启电压在较低的开启电压下出现，这表明作为辅因子存在于这种四聚体蛋白质每个亚基中的血红素基团可能产生了影响。
