Alignment of the columnar liquid crystal phase of nano-DNA by confinement in channels

Abstract

We demonstrate that topographic confinement in micro-channels can produce aligned domains of the columnar liquid crystal phase of complementary duplex short deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) oligomers. Optical microscopy probing birefringence and fluorescence polarisation showed that the columnar liquid crystal phase of a 1:1 mixture of the complementary dodecamers 5′–CCTCAAAACTCC–3′ and 5′–GGAGTTTTGAGG–3′ in aqueous solution was aligned with the duplex DNA chains oriented normal to the channel axis.