Graphene/SrTiO3 hetero interface studied by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy

The present paper focuses on study of graphene and strontium titanate(SrTiO_3 or STO) interface. An ambient pressure chemical vapour deposition(AP-CVD) setup is used to grow graphene on STO(110)substrates in the presence of methane, argon and hydrogen gases at 1000 °C for 4 h. Raman spectroscopy measurements confirm the presence of graphene on STO substrates due to the existence of typical D and G peaks referring to graphene. These characteristic peaks are missing in the spectrum for bare substrates.X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy(XPS) is carried out for elemental analysis of samples, and study their bonding with STO substrates. We employed the valence band spectrum to calculate the valence band offset(VBO) and conduction band offset(CBO) at the G-STO interface. Also, we present an energy band diagram for Bi-layer and ABC(arranging pattern of carbon layers) stacked graphene layers.     

DNA synthesis provides the driving force to accelerate DNA unwinding by a helicase

Helicases are molecular motors that use the energy of nucleoside 5'-triphosphate (NTP) hydrolysis to translocate along a nucleic acid strand and catalyse reactions such as DNA unwinding. The ring-shaped helicase of bacteriophage T7 translocates along single-stranded (ss)DNA at a speed of 130 bases per second; however, T7 helicase slows down nearly tenfold when unwinding the strands of duplex DNA. Here, we report that T7 DNA polymerase, which is unable to catalyse strand displacement DNA synthesis by itself, can increase the unwinding rate to 114 base pairs per second, bringing the helicase up to similar speeds compared to its translocation along ssDNA. The helicase rate of stimulation depends upon the DNA synthesis rate and does not rely on specific interactions between T7 DNA polymerase and the carboxy-terminal residues of T7 helicase. Efficient duplex DNA synthesis is achieved only by the combined action of the helicase and polymerase. The strand displacement DNA synthesis by the DNA polymerase depends on the unwinding activity of the helicase, which provides ssDNA template. The rapid trapping of the ssDNA bases by the DNA synthesis activity of the polymerase in turn drives the helicase to move forward through duplex DNA at speeds similar to those observed along ssDNA.