Dopamine-assisted synthesis of carbon-coated silica for PCR enhancement.

Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) has become one of the most popular methods to identify genomic information on cells and tissues as well as to solve crimes and check genetic diseases. Recently, the nanomaterials including nanocomposite and nanoparticles have been considered as a next generation of solution to improve both quality and productivity of PCR. Herein, taking into these demands, carbon-coated silica was synthesized using silica particles via polymerization of biocompatible dopamine (PD) to form polydopamine (PDA) film and carbonization of PDA into graphitic structures. For further investigation of the effects of as-prepared silica, PDA-coated silica (PDA silica), and carbonized PDA silica (C-PDA silica), two different types of genes were adopted to investigate the influences of them in the PCR. Furthermore, the strong interaction between the nanocomposites and PCR reagents including polymerase and primers enables regulation of the PCR performance. The effectiveness of the nanocomposites was also confirmed through adopting the conventional PCR and real-time PCR with two different types of DNA as realistic models and different kinds of analytical methods. These findings could provide helpful insight for the potential application in biosensors and biomedical diagnosis.