An energy-based model is presented to establish the bending deformation of microcantilever beams induced by single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) adsorption. The total free energy of the DNA-microcantilever sensor was obtained by considering the excluded-volume energy and the polymer stretching energy of DNA chains from mean-field theory, and the mechanical energy of three non-biological layers. The radius of curvature and deflection of the cantilever were determined through the minimum principle of energy. The efficiency of the present model was confirmed through comparison with experimental data. The effects of length, grafting density, salt concentration, thickness, and elastic modulus of substrate on tip deflections are also discussed in this paper. These factors can significantly affect the deflections of the biosensor. This work demonstrates that it is useful to develop a theoretical model for the label-free nanomechanical detection technique.
Keywords: DNA adsorption; biosensor; energy method; mean-field theory; microcantilever.