High-Performance Organic Electrochemical Transistor Based on Photo-annealed Plasmonic Gold Nanoparticle-Doped PEDOT:PSS

Single-Component Electroactive Polymer Architectures for Non-Enzymatic Glucose Sensing

Organic mixed ionic-electronic conductors (OMIECs) have emerged as promising materials for biological sensing, owing to their electrochemical activity, stability in an aqueous environment, and biocompatibility. Yet, OMIEC-based sensors rely predominantly on the use of composite matrices to enable stimuli-responsive functionality, which can exhibit issues with intercomponent interfacing. In this study, an approach is presented for non-enzymatic glucose detection by harnessing a newly synthesized functionalized monomer, EDOT-PBA. This monomer integrates electrically conducting and receptor moieties within a single organic component, obviating the need for complex composite preparation. By engineering the conditions for electrodeposition, two distinct polymer film architectures are developed: pristine PEDOT-PBA and molecularly imprinted PEDOT-PBA. Both architectures demonstrated proficient glucose binding and signal transduction capabilities. Notably, the molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) architecture demonstrated faster stabilization upon glucose uptake while it also enabled a lower limit of detection, lower standard deviation, and a broader linear range in the sensor output signal compared to its non-imprinted counterpart. This material design not only provides a robust and efficient platform for glucose detection but also offers a blueprint for developing selective sensors for a diverse array of target molecules, by tuning the receptor units correspondingly.

Plasmon-enhanced fluorescence for biophotonics and bio-analytical applications

Fluorescence spectroscopy serves as an ultrasensitive sophisticated tool where background noises which serve as a major impediment to the detection of the desired signals can be safely avoided for detections down to the single-molecule levels. One such way of bypassing background noise is plasmon-enhanced fluorescence (PEF), where the interactions of fluorophores at the surface of metals or plasmonic nanoparticles are probed. The underlying condition is a significant spectral overlap between the localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) of the nanoparticle and the absorption or emission spectra of the fluorophore. The rationale being the coupling of the excited state of the fluorophore with the localized surface plasmon leads to an augmented emission, owing to local field enhancement. It is manifested in enhanced quantum yields concurrent with a decrease in fluorescence lifetimes, owing to an increase in radiative rate constants. This improvement in detection provided by PEF allows a significant scope of expansion in the domain of weakly emitting fluorophores which otherwise would have remained unperceivable. The concept of coupling of weak emitters with plasmons can bypass the problems of photobleaching, opening up avenues of imaging with significantly higher sensitivity and improved resolution. Furthermore, amplification of the emission signal by the coupling of free electrons of the metal nanoparticles with the electrons of the fluorophore provides ample opportunities for achieving lower detection limits that are involved in biological imaging and molecular sensing. One avenue that has attracted significant attraction in the last few years is the fast, label-free detection of bio-analytes under physiological conditions using plasmonic nanoparticles for point-of-care analysis. This review focusses on the applications of plasmonic nanomaterials in the field of biosensing, imaging with a brief introduction on the different aspects of LSPR and fabrication techniques.

Tuning Gate Potential Profiles and Current-Voltage Characteristics of Polymer Electrolyte-Gated Transistors by Capacitance Engineering

We demonstrate that the transfer characteristics of electrolyte-gated transistors (EGTs) with polythiophene semiconductor channels are a strong function of gate/electrolyte interfacial contact area, i.e., gate size. Polythiophene EGTs with gate/electrolyte areas much larger than the channel/electrolyte areas show a clear peak in the drain current vs gate voltage (ID-VG) behavior, as well as peak voltage hysteresis between the forward and reverse VG sweeps. Polythiophene EGTs with small gate/electrolyte areas, on the other hand, exhibit current plateaus in the ID-VG behavior and a gate-size-dependent hysteresis loop between turn on and off. The qualitatively different transport behaviors are attributed to the relative sizes of the gate/electrolyte and channel/electrolyte interface capacitances, which are proportional to interfacial area. These interfacial capacitances are in series with each other such that the total capacitance of the full gate/electrolyte/channel stack is dominated by the interface with the smallest capacitance or area. For EGTs with large gates, most of the applied VG is dropped at the channel/electrolyte interface, leading to very high charge accumulations, up to ∼0.3 holes per ring (hpr) in the case of polythiophene semiconductors. The large charge density results in sub-band-filling and a marked decrease in hole mobility, giving rise to the peak in ID-VG. For EGTs with small gates, hole accumulation saturates near 0.15 hpr, band-filling does not occur, and hole mobility is maintained at a fixed value, which leads to the ID plateau. Potential drops at the interfaces are confirmed by in situ potential measurements inside a gate/electrolyte/polymer semiconductor stack. Hole accumulations are measured with gate current-gate voltage (IG-VG) measurements acquired simultaneously with the ID-VG characteristics. Overall, our measurements demonstrate that remarkably different ID behavior can be obtained for polythiophene EGTs by controlling the magnitude of the gate-electrolyte interfacial capacitance.

Current advancements and prospects of enzymatic and non-enzymatic electrochemical glucose sensors

This review discusses the most current developments and future perspectives in enzymatic and non-enzymatic glucose sensors, which have notably evolved over the preceding quadrennial period. Furthermore, a thorough exploration encompassed the sensor's intricate fabrication processes, the diverse range of materials employed, the underlying principles of detection, and an in-depth assessment of the sensors' efficacy in detecting glucose levels within essential bodily fluids such as human blood serums, urine, saliva, and interstitial fluids. It is worth noting that the accurate quantification of glucose concentrations within human blood has been effectively achieved by utilizing classical enzymatic sensors harmoniously integrated with optical and electrochemical transduction mechanisms. Monitoring glucose levels in various mediums has attracted exceptional attention from industrial to academic researchers for diabetes management, food quality control, clinical medicine, and bioprocess inspection. There has been an enormous demand for the creation of novel glucose sensors over the past ten years. Research has primarily concentrated on succeeding biocompatible and enhanced sensing abilities related to the present technologies, offering innovative avenues for more effective glucose sensors. Recent developments in wearable optical and electrochemical sensors with low cost, high stability, point-of-care testing, and online tracking of glucose concentration levels in biological fluids can aid in managing and controlling diabetes globally. New nanomaterials and biomolecules that can be used in electrochemical sensor systems to identify glucose concentration levels are developed thanks to advances in nanoscience and nanotechnology. Both enzymatic and non-enzymatic glucose electrochemical sensors have garnered much interest recently and have made significant strides in detecting glucose levels. In this review, we summarise several categories of non-enzymatic glucose sensor materials, including composites, non-precious transition metals and their metal oxides, hydroxides, precious metals and their alloys, carbon-based materials, conducting polymers, metal-organic framework (MOF)-based electrocatalysts, and wearable device-based glucose sensors deeply.

Biological Interaction and Imaging of Ultrasmall Gold Nanoparticles

The ultrasmall gold nanoparticles (AuNPs), serving as a bridge between small molecules and traditional inorganic nanoparticles, create significant opportunities to address many challenges in the health field. This review discusses the recent advances in the biological interactions and imaging of ultrasmall AuNPs. The challenges and the future development directions of the ultrasmall AuNPs are presented.

Quantum Dot Transfer from the Organic Phase to Acrylic Monomers for the Controlled Integration of Single-Photon Sources by Photopolymerization

This paper reports on a new strategy for obtaining homogeneous dispersion of grafted quantum dots (QDs) in a photopolymer matrix and their use for the integration of single-photon sources by two-photon polymerization (TPP) with nanoscale precision. The method is based on phase transfer of QDs from organic solvents to an acrylic matrix. The detailed protocol is described, and the corresponding mechanism is investigated and revealed. The phase transfer is done by ligand exchange through the introduction of mono-2-(methacryloyloxy) ethyl succinate (MES) that replaces oleic acid (OA). Infrared (IR) measurements show the replacement of OA on the QD surface by MES after ligand exchange. This allows QDs to move from the hexane phase to the pentaerythritol triacrylate (PETA) phase. The QDs that are homogeneously dispersed in the photopolymer without any clusterization do not show any significant broadening in their photoluminescence spectra even after more than 3 years. The ability of the hybrid photopolymer to create micro- and nanostructures by two-photon polymerization is demonstrated. The homogeneity of emission from 2D and 3D microstructures is confirmed by confocal photoluminescence microscopy. The fabrication and integration of a single-photon source in a spatially controlled manner by TPP is achieved and confirmed by auto-correlation measurements.