Nanostructure based methods for detection structure determination separation transport extraction and control of chemical and biochemical material

#Invention relates to the methods and apparatus for detection and determination of structure and/or composition of chemical and/or biological materials or molecules. The invention also relates to transport, manipulation, separation and extraction of the biological and chemical materials. It transcends several scientific disciplines, physics, chemistry, biology, and medicine, but the base of the method is charge or energy transfer that increases if the structures and analyte have overlapping energy levels and state densities.

#A variety of methods and sensors have been developed for chemical, biochemical, biological or biochemical analysis, control and detection. Biological species of interest include molecules, for example: sugars, nucleic acids, proteins, DNA, RNA, various toxins, bacteria, parasites, fungi, viruses, etc. The development of the claimed detection methods will have significant impact on broad range of applications related to medical diagnostic, drug development, food control and safety, the environment, energy production, and security. However, the invention has even broader range of applicability. Development of new nanostructured materials together with the emerging advances in micro, nano and superlattice structures and electronics create a new avenue for construction of more advanced methods and sensors.

#There exist a number of known methods for detecting biochemical materials. The most common are: optical absorption and reflection, Raman spectroscopy, photoluminescence, fluorescence, electrophoresis, mass spectroscopy, ion mobility etc. The current generation of sensors is mostly constructed of a transducer in combination with a biological active surface. Many of these rely on specific ligand antiligand reactions as the detection mechanism. Others rely on electronic signals for detection, using DC or AC potentials, and detecting change in impedance, with or without using mediators for charge transfer to the electrode.

#The invention will be better understood by reference to the following drawings which are for illustrative purpose only:

#FIG. 1 illustrates a device that is the base for our method. According to the invention wherein a plurality of nanostructures (101) on a substrate (102) is connected to the chip (103) that supplies electrical bias to the nanostructures and also measures the charge and/or energy transfer between an analyte (104) and the nanostructures (101). The chip (103) also amplifies the signal and transmits signal further to the electronics (105), which may include coincidence units, and to the computer (106).

#FIG. 2a illustrates energy level distribution in a bulk material. FIG. 2b illustrates energy level distribution in a nanostructure whit a strong confinement. One can see continuous distribution of energy levels in bulk material and discrete energy level distribution in nanostructures.

#The method will be described by giving the examples. The invention includes any method in which the quantum confinement is used to design the nanostructures, used in the method, in such way that the energy levels in the nanostructures match the energy levels in the targeted analytes. The current examples are not meant to limit the scope of the invention, and it will be understood that a number of different methods can be implemented utilizing described examples.

#For illustrative purpose only, the invention is embodied in the apparatus shown in FIG. 1. Shown is a plurality of nanostructures (101) on a substrate (102) connected to the chip (103) that supplies electrical bias to the nanostructure and also measures the charge and/or energy transfer between the analyte (104) and the nanostructure (101); or/and the transfer between the nanostructure elements (101). The chip (103) also amplifies the signal and transmits signal further to the electronics (105), which may include coincidence units, and to the computer (106).

#Again for illustrative purpose only, we will first give an example of the detection method and then latter we will explain the method in more details. For instance if we would like to detect oxygen and to distinguish if it is in the form of: O, O2, or O3 we can use apparatus described in FIG. 1. For this purpose we will need three different groups of nanostructures (101), for instance three different groups of quantum dots. One group of quantum dots that will have shape, size, and compositions, which will give that group of quantum dots, through quantum confinement, distribution of energy levels (density of states) the same as it is the distribution of the energy levels (density of states) in, for instance, molecule O. The second group of quantum dots (101) will be designed (shape, size, composition) to give this group of quantum dots the same distribution of the energy levels (density of states) as it is in the molecule O2. The third group of quantum dots (101) will be designed to have distribution of energy levels as it is in molecule O3. One will then monitor by electronics (105) charges received in each of these three groups of quantum dots. If, for instance, charges are detected in the quantum dots group number 1, it will mean that a molecule O is present, because only presence of a molecule O can generate charges in the quantum dots group number 1. Other molecules will generate chargers in other quantum dots groups, but not in the quantum dots group number 1. For instance O2, will generate charges only on quantum dots group number 2; and O3 in quantum dots group number 3. This is description of an ideal detector. In reality it is hard to mimic all energy levels in an analyte with just one quantum dot. To detect one molecule, one analyte, in general we will need to have several quantum dots, a group of quantum dots, in which each quantum dots will mimic a part of the energy spectrum of the analyte. Only if all quantum dots in that particular group, that mimic that molecule, will experience charge transfer, only then we can say that that analyte is present. If one of the quantum dots in the group will not be active it means that in the proximity of that group is a similar analyte, but not targeted one. This is underlined in the claim one with wording “plurality of nanostructures”. This also demonstrates the mechanism that will give our method high selectivity. The high sensitivity of our method is also ensured, because the quantum dots are designed to have maximal overlap of the energy levels with the analyte, which will result in the highest tunneling of charges between analyte and quantum dots, higher than in the systems that are not designed on this way.