Electrochemical sensors and biosensors

Synthesis, spectral and antimicrobial activity of Zn(II) complexes with Schiff bases derived from 2-hydrazino-5-[substituted phenyl]-1,3,4-thiadiazole and benzaldehyde/2-hydroxyacetophenone/indoline-2,3-dione

Zn(II) complexes have been synthesized by reacting zinc acetate with Schiff bases derived from 2-hydrazino-5-[substituted phenyl]-1,3,4-thiadiazole and 2-hydroxyacetophenone/benzaldehyde/indoline-2,3-dione. All these complexes are soluble in DMF and DMSO; low molar conductance values indicate that they are non electrolytes. Elemental analyses suggest that the complexes have 1:2 metal to ligands stoichiometry of the types [ZnL2(H2O)2](L=monoanionic Schiff bases derived from 2-hydrazino-5-[substituted phenyl]-1,3,4-thiadiazole and 2-hydroxyacetophenone/indoline-2,3-dione) [ZnL2(')(OOCCH3)2(H2O)2](L'=neutral Schiff bases derived from 2-hydrazino-5-[substituted phenyl]-1,3,4-thiadiazole and benzaldehyde), and they were characterized by IR, (1)H NMR, and (13)C NMR. Particle sizes of synthesized compounds were measured with dynamic light scattering (DLS) analyser which indicates that particle diameter are of the range ca. 100-200nm. All these Schiff bases and their complexes have also been screened for their antibacterial (Bacillus subtilis (B. subtilis), Escherichia coli (E. coli) and antifungal activities (Colletotrichum falcatum (C. falcatum), Aspergillus niger (A. niger), Fusarium oxysporium (F. oxysporium) Curvularia pallescence (C. pallescence). The antimicrobial activities have shown that upon complexation the activity increases.

Direct electron transfer of glucose oxidase and biosensing for glucose based on PDDA-capped gold nanoparticle modified graphene/multi-walled carbon nanotubes electrode

In this work, poly (diallyldimethylammonium chloride) (PDDA)-capped gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) functionalized graphene (G)/multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) nanocomposites were fabricated. Based on the electrostatic attraction, the G/MWCNTs hybrid material can be decorated with AuNPs uniformly and densely. The new hierarchical nanostructure can provide a larger surface area and a more favorable microenvironment for electron transfer. The AuNPs/G/MWCNTs nanocomposite was used as a novel immobilization platform for glucose oxidase (GOD). Direct electron transfer (DET) was achieved between GOD and the electrode. Field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), UV-vis spectroscopy and cyclic voltammetry (CV) were used to characterize the electrochemical biosensor. The glucose biosensor fabricated based on GOD electrode modified with AuNPs/G/MWCNTs demonstrated satisfactory analytical performance with high sensitivity (29.72mAM(-1)cm(-2)) and low limit of detection (4.8 µM). The heterogeneous electron transfer rate constant (ΚS) and the apparent Michaelis-Menten constant (Km) of GOD were calculated to be 11.18s(-1) and 2.09 mM, respectively. With satisfactory selectivity, reproducibility, and stability, the nanostructure we proposed offered an alternative for electrode fabricating and glucose biosensing.

Impedimetric graphene-based biosensors for the detection of polybrominated diphenyl ethers

Single-layer graphene, decorated with Au nanoparticles, and a specially designed peptide are used for the first time in the detection of decabrominediphenyl ether using impedance spectroscopy. Biosensor calibration is presented, showing a good linear response from 5% to saturated dissolutions (100 ppt). Selectivity towards brominated species is demonstrated by lack of response to molecules with similar structures but without any bromines.

Cascadic multienzyme reaction-based electrochemical biosensors

: Since the first glucose biosensor was developed by Clark and Lyons, there have been great efforts to develop effective enzyme biosensors for wide applications. Those efforts are closely related to the enhancement of biosensor performance, including sensitivity improvement, elevation of selectivity, and extension of the range of analytes that may be determined. Introduction of a cascadic multienzyme reaction to the electrochemical biosensor is one of those efforts. By employing more than two enzymes to the biosensor, its sensitivity and accuracy can be enhanced. Also, the narrow application range that is a typical limitation of single enzyme-based biosensor can be overcome. This chapter will discuss the fundamental principles for the development of cascadic multienzyme reaction-based electrochemical biosensors and their applications in clinical and environmental fields.

Biosensors in the small scale: methods and technology trends

This study presents a review on biosensors with an emphasis on recent developments in the field. A brief history accompanied by a detailed description of the biosensor concepts is followed by rising trends observed in contemporary micro- and nanoscale biosensors. Performance metrics to quantify and compare different detection mechanisms are presented. A comprehensive analysis on various types and subtypes of biosensors are given. The fields of interest within the scope of this review are label-free electrical, mechanical and optical biosensors as well as other emerging and popular technologies. Especially, the latter half of the last decade is reviewed for the types, methods and results of the most prominently researched detection mechanisms. Tables are provided for comparison of various competing technologies in the literature. The conclusion part summarises the noteworthy advantages and disadvantages of all biosensors reviewed in this study. Furthermore, future directions that the micro- and nanoscale biosensing technologies are expected to take are provided along with the immediate outlook.

Silver nanowire-based electrochemical immunoassay for sensing immunoglobulin G with signal amplification using strawberry-like ZnO nanostructures as labels

The quick development of nanoscience and nanotechnology has paved the way for ultrasensitive biosensing and analysis. In this work, an ultrasensitive electrochemical immunosensor was developed for the detection of human immunoglobulin G (IgG) by combining with a newly designed trace tag on a disposable immunosensor array. The array was prepared by immobilizing captured antibodies on ultralong Ag nanowires, whilst the trace tag was prepared by loading horseradish peroxidase (HRP)-labeled goat anti-human IgG (HRP-anti-IgG) on thionine (TH)-doped mesoporous ZnO nanostrawberries (MP-ZnO). With a sandwich-type immunoassay format, mainly due to crystalline framework and high surface area of the mesoporous (MP) materials, as well as the superconductivity of silver nanowires, the electrochemical signal was significantly amplified. The linear range of the developed immunosensor is 0.01-200 ng mL(-1) and the detection limit is 4 pg mL(-1) IgG, which make the hierarchically nanostructured composites very promising candidates for the next-generation sandwich-type electrochemical immunoassays.

Label-free detection of glycoproteins by the lectin biosensor down to attomolar level using gold nanoparticles

We present here an ultrasensitive electrochemical biosensor based on a lectin biorecognition capable to detect concentrations of glycoproteins down to attomolar (aM) level by investigation of changes in the charge transfer resistance (Rct) using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). On polycrystalline gold modified by an aminoalkanethiol linker layer, gold nanoparticles were attached. A Sambucus nigra agglutinin was covalently immobilised on a mixed self-assembled monolayer formed on gold nanoparticles and finally, the biosensor surface was blocked by poly(vinyl alcohol). The lectin biosensor was applied for detection of sialic acid containing glycoproteins fetuin and asialofetuin. Building of a biosensing interface was carefully characterised by a broad range of techniques such as electrochemistry, EIS, atomic force microscopy, scanning electron microscopy and surface plasmon resonance with the best performance of the biosensor achieved by application of HS-(CH2)11-NH2 linker and gold nanoparticles with a diameter of 20 nm. The lectin biosensor responded to an addition of fetuin (8.7% of sialic acid) with sensitivity of (338 ± 11) Ω decade(-1) and to asialofetuin (≤ 0.5% of sialic acid) with sensitivity of (109 ± 10) Ω decade(-1) with a blank experiment with oxidised asialofetuin (without recognisable sialic acid) revealing sensitivity of detection of (79 ± 13) Ω decade(-1). These results suggest the lectin biosensor responded to changes in the glycan amount in a quantitative way with a successful validation by a lectin microarray. Such a biosensor device has a great potential to be employed in early biomedical diagnostics of diseases such as arthritis or cancer, which are connected to aberrant glycosylation of protein biomarkers in biological fluids.

Microfluidic chips for immunoassays

The use of microfluidic chips for immunoassays has been extensively explored in recent years. The combination of immunoassays and microfluidics affords a promising platform for multiple, sensitive, and automatic point-of-care (POC) diagnostics. In this review, we focus on the description of recent achievements in microfluidic chips for immunoassays categorized by their detection method. Following a brief introduction to the basic principles of each detection method, we examine current microfluidic immunosensor detection systems in detail. We also highlight interesting strategies for sensitive immunosensing configurations, multiplexed analysis, and POC diagnostics in microfluidic immunosensors.

Archetypal sandwich-structured CuO for high performance non-enzymatic sensing of glucose

In the quest to enhance the selectivity and sensitivity of novel structured metal oxides for electrochemical non-enzymatic sensing of glucose, we report here a green synthesis of unique sandwich-structured CuO on a large scale under microwave mediated homogeneous precipitation conditions. The physicochemical studies carried out by XRD and BET methods show that the monoclinic CuO formed via thermal decomposition of Cu(2)(OH)(2)CO(3) possesses monomodal channel-type pores with largely improved surface area (~43 m(2) g(-1)) and pore volume (0.163 cm(3) g(-1)). The fascinating surface morphology and pore structure of CuO is formulated due to homogeneous crystallization and microwave induced self assembly during synthesis. The cyclic voltammetry and chronoamperometry studies show diffusion controlled glucose oxidation at ~0.6 V (vs. Ag/AgCl) with extremely high sensitivity of 5342.8 μA mM(-1) cm(-2) and respective detection limit and response time of ~1 μM and ~0.7 s, under a wide dynamic concentration range of glucose. The chronoamperometry measurements demonstrate that the sensitivity of CuO to glucose is unaffected by the absence of dissolved oxygen and presence of poisoning chloride ions in the reaction medium, which essentially implies high poison resistance activity of the sandwich-structured CuO. The sandwich-structured CuO also shows insignificant interference/significant selectivity to glucose, even in the presence of high concentrations of other sugars as well as reducing species. In addition, the sandwich-structured CuO shows excellent reproducibility (relative standard deviation of ~2.4% over ten identically fabricated electrodes) and outstanding long term stability (only ~1.3% loss in sensitivity over a period of one month) during non-enzymatic electrochemical sensing of glucose. The unique microstructure and suitable channel-type pore architecture provide structural stability and maximum accessible electroactive surface for unimpeded mobility of glucose as well as the product molecules, which result in the excellent sensitivity and selectivity of sandwich-structured CuO for glucose under non-enzymatic milieu.

Chemical surface modifications for the development of silicon-based label-free integrated optical (IO) biosensors: a review

Increasing interest has been paid to label-free biosensors in recent years. Among them, refractive index (RI) optical biosensors enable high density and the chip-scale integration of optical components. This makes them more appealing to help develop lab-on-a-chip devices. Today, many RI integrated optical (IO) devices are made using silicon-based materials. A key issue in their development is the biofunctionalization of sensing surfaces because they provide a specific, sensitive response to the analyte of interest. This review critically discusses the biofunctionalization procedures, assay formats and characterization techniques employed in setting up IO biosensors. In addition, it provides the most relevant results obtained from using these devices for real sample biosensing. Finally, an overview of the most promising future developments in the fields of chemical surface modification and capture agent attachment for IO biosensors follows.

Ultrasensitive multianalyte electrochemical immunoassay based on metal ion functionalized titanium phosphate nanospheres

A novel multianalyte electrochemical immunoassay was developed for ultrasensitive detection of human cardiopathy biomarkers cardiac troponin I (cTnI) and human heart-type fatty-acid-binding protein (FABP) using metal ion functionalized titanium phosphate nanospheres (TiP-metal ion) as labels. The metal ions could be detected directly through square wave voltammetry (SWV) without metal preconcentration, and the distinct voltammetric peaks had a close relationship with each sandwich-type immunoreaction. The position and size of the peaks reflected the identity and level of the corresponding antigen. The large amount of metal ions loading on the TiP nanospheres greatly amplified the detection signals, and the good biocompatibility of graphene nanoribbons (GONRs) retained good stability for the sandwich-type immunoassay. The proposed immunoassay exhibited high sensitivity and selectivity for the detection of cTnI and FABP. The linear relationships between electrochemical signals and the concentrations of cTnI and FABP were obtained in the range of 0.05 pg/mL-50 ng/mL and 0.05 pg/mL-50 ng/mL, respectively. The detection limits of cTnI and HIgG were 1 and 3 fg/mL (S/N = 3), respectively. Moreover, the immunoassay accurately detected the concentrations of cTnI and FABP in human serum samples, which were demonstrated to have excellent correlations with the standard enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) method. The results suggested that the electrochemical immunoassay would be promising in the point-of-care diagnostics application of clinical screening of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) biomarkers.

Photochemical grafting and patterning of organic monolayers on indium tin oxide substrates

Covalently attached organic layers on indium tin oxide (ITO) surfaces were prepared by the photochemical grafting with 1-alkenes. The surface modification was monitored with static water contact angle, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and atomic force microscopy (AFM) measurements. Hydrophobic methyl-terminated ITO surfaces can be obtained via the grafting of tetradec-1-ene, whereas the attachment of ω-functionalized 1-alkenes leads to functionalized ITO surfaces. The use of a C≡C-Ge(CH(3))(3) terminus allows for facile tagging of the surface with an azido group via a one-pot deprotection/click reaction, resulting in bio/electronically active interfaces. The combination of nonaggressive chemicals (alkenes), mild reaction conditions (room temperature), and a light-induced grafting that facilitates the direct patterning of organic layers makes this simple approach highly promising for the development of ITO-based (bio)electronic devices.