Luminescence of cup-stacked carbon nanotubes and its application to microchip electrophoresis

Microchip electrophoresis (MCE) is one of the most suitable methods for biomolecular separation and analysis because of its superior characteristics. In biomolecular separation and analysis, laser induced fluorescent (LIF) detection is frequently employed in MCE and attains high sensitive detection. However, LIF detection requires the labeling of analytes, which contains troublesome procedures and results in decreasing of the separation efficiency. In addition, the labeling reaction at low concentration is significantly difficult, and thus true high sensitive detection is not easily attained and has been desired. Here, we report on the possibility of cup-stacked carbon nanotubes (CSCNTs) for high sensitive label-free detection and high separation efficiency. At first we investigated fluorescence properties of CSCNTs. Our investigation revealed that supernatant solution of CSCNTs after centrifugation had fluorescence at around 500 nm, while CSCNTs suspension did not. The application of CSCNTs for MCE enabled us to successfully separate and detect DNA without labeling it. Compared to the direct detection method, our method resulted in poor separation efficiency. However, by controlling of the CSCNTs' aspect ratio and the immobilization of functional molecules on the CSCNTs surfaces, we could improve separation efficiency and attain the separation of various samples without labeling samples.