Charge Transfer through Single-Stranded Peptide Nucleic Acid Composed of Thymine Nucleotides

Self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) of single-stranded peptide nucleic acids (PNAs) containing 3 to 7 thymine (T) nucleotides, a C-terminus cysteine, and an N-terminus ferrocene group were formed on gold electrodes. The existence of two redox environments for the ferrocene was detected by cyclic voltammetry and was attributed to the presence of “lying-down” and “standing-up” PNA molecules. By exploiting the chemical instability of the ferrocenium ion, electrochemical cycling was used to destroy the ferrocene of “lying-down” molecules while keeping the ferrocene in the “standing-up” molecules intact. Electrochemical measurements were used to determine the electron-transfer rate through the “standing-up” PNA molecules. The tunneling decay constant for these SAMs was determined to be about 0.9 Å^-1.