Enhancement of the polymerase chain reaction by tungsten disulfide.

In this paper, we demonstrated that the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) could be dramatically enhanced by tungsten disulfide (WS 2 ). The results showed that the PCR efficiency could be increased with the addition of WS 2 and at a lower annealing temperature, which simplified the design and operation of PCR. Moreover, PCR with WS 2 showed better specificity and efficiency as compared with graphene oxide (GO) for a human genome DNA sample. The mechanism of enhancement of PCR by WS 2 was discussed according to the typical structure and the characteristics of selective adsorption of single-stranded DNA by WS 2 . The results suggested that WS 2 as a PCR enhancer can promote the PCR performance and extend the PCR application in biomedical research, clinical diagnostic, and bioanalysis.