Which 2D Material is Better for DNA Detection: Graphene, MoS2, or MXene?

Despite much research on characterizing 2D materials for DNA detection with nanopore technology, a thorough comparison between the performance of different 2D materials is currently lacking. In this work, using extensive molecular dynamics simulations, we compare nanoporous graphene, MoS₂ and titanium carbide MXene (Ti₃C₂) for their DNA detection performance and sensitivity. The ionic current and residence time of DNA are characterized in each nanoporous materials by performing hundreds of simulations. We devised two statistical measures including the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test and the absolute pairwise difference to compare the performance of nanopores. We found that graphene nanopore is the most sensitive membrane for distinguishing DNA bases. The MoS₂ is capable of distinguishing the A and T bases from the C and G bases better than graphene and MXene. Physisorption and the orientation of DNA in nanopores are further investigated to provide molecular insight into the performance characteristics of different nanopores.