Adsorption of DNA/RNA nucleobases on hexagonal boron nitride sheet: an ab initio study

Abstract

Our ab initio calculations indicate that the interaction of deoxyribonucleic/ribonucleic acid (DNA/RNA) nucleobases [guanine (G), adenine (A), thymine (T), cytosine (C), and uracil (U)] with the hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) sheet, a polar but chemically inert surface, is governed by mutual polarization. Unlike the case of graphene, all nucleobases exhibit the same stacking arrangement on the h-BN sheet due to polarization effects: the anions (N and O atoms) of nucleobases prefer to stay on top of cations (B) of the substrate as far as possible, regardless of the biological properties of nucleobases. The adsorption energies, ranging from 0.5 eV to 0.69 eV, increase in the order of U, C, T, A and G, which can be attributed to different side groups or atoms of nucleobases. The fundamental nature of DNA/RNA nucleobases and h-BN sheet remains unchanged upon adsorption, suggesting that the h-BN sheet is a promising template for DNA/RNA-related research, such as self-assembly.