Distinct mechanisms of DNA sensing based on N-doped carbon nanotubes   with enhanced conductance and chemical selectivity
  Carrying out first-principles calculations, we study N-doped capped carbon nanotube (CNT) electrodes applied to DNA sequencing. While we obtain for the face-on nucleobase junction configurations a conventional conductance ordering where the largest signal results from guanine according to its high highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) level, we extract for the edge-on counterparts a distinct conductance ordering where the low-HOMO thymine provides the largest signal. The edge-on mode is shown to operate based on a novel molecular sensing mechanism that reflects the chemical connectivity between N-doped CNT caps that can act both as electron donors and electron acceptors and DNA functional groups that include the hyperconjugated thymine methyl group. 
Han Seul Kim, Seung Jin Lee, and Yong-Hoon Kim
cond-mat.mes-hall