Charge Transport in Biopolymers

Abstract

First the general problem of charge transport through proteins is addressed. It is shortly outlined, besides the already assumed mechanisms, how one can calculate the hopping conductivity (σ(ω)) in disordered polypeptides and nucleotide base stacks along the main chain. The results obtained show rather large σ (ω) values at large frequencies and still larger ones in the case of the base stacks. Where possible the theoretical results are compared with experiment. Finally it is shortly discussed, how the calculations could be further improved by using better basis sets, taking into account correlation effects and by applying a more sophisticated expression for the hopping frequencies.