ssDNA binding reveals the atomic structure of graphene.

We used AFM to investigate the interaction of polyelectrolytes such as ssDNA and dsDNA molecules with graphene as a substrate. Graphene is an appropriate substrate due to its planarity, relatively large surfaces that are detectable via an optical microscope, and straightforward identification of the number of layers. We observe that in the absence of the screening ions deposited ssDNA will bind only to the graphene and not to the SiO(2) substrate, confirming that the binding energy is mainly due to the π-π stacking interaction.