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Free-standing electrochemical biosensor for carcinoembryonic antigen detection based on highly stable and flexible conducting polypyrrole nanocomposite

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Abstract

A flexible free-standing electrochemical biosensor to detect carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) is described based on a conducting polypyrrole (PPy) nanocomposite film electrode. The conducting PPy composite was constructed by the sandwiched structure formed by PPy doped with pentaerythritol ethoxylate (PEE) and 2-naphthalene sulfonate (2-NS-PPy) separately via electropolymerization. Gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) were fixed on the PPy composite film by electrodeposition and then connected to CEA aptamer through self-assembly to construct a free-standing electrochemical biosensor breaking away from additional soft substrates and current collector. This PPy composite film-based electrochemical biosensor exhibits satisfying sensing performance for CEA detection, with a linear range from 10−10 g/mL to 10−6 g/mL and a detection limit of 0.033 ng/mL, good specificity and long-term sensing stability (96.8% of the original signal after 15 days). The biosensor also presents acceptable reproducibility with 1.7% relative standard deviation. Moreover, this electrochemical biosensor owns the deformation stability that could bear various deformations (twisting, folding, and knotting) without affecting device’s sensing performance. It can even maintain 99.4% of the original signal under 25% strain deformation. Due to the superior sensing performance, high stability (mechanical deformation and long-term storage), and flexibility, this free-standing electrochemical biosensor proves huge potential in application of flexible and wearable electronics.

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Funding

This work was supported by Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province (ZR2019BB008), National Natural Science Foundation of China (21974075), Talent Fund of Shandong Collaborative Innovation Center of Eco-Chemical Engineering (XTCXQN09), the Taishan Scholar Program of Shandong Province of China (ts20110829), and the Science and Technology Benefiting the People Project of Qingdao (20-3-4-53-nsh).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Optic-electric Sensing and Analytical Chemistry for Life Science, MOE, Shandong Key Laboratory of Biochemical Analysis, Key Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry for Life Science in Universities of Shandong, College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Qingdao University of Science and Technology, Qingdao, 266042, China

    Jingyao Song, He Teng, Zhenying Xu, Nianzu Liu, Liang Xu, Lu Liu, Fengxian Gao & Xiliang Luo

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  1. Jingyao Song
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  2. He Teng
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  3. Zhenying Xu
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  4. Nianzu Liu
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  5. Liang Xu
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  6. Lu Liu
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  7. Fengxian Gao
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  8. Xiliang Luo
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Correspondence to Fengxian Gao or Xiliang Luo.

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Song, J., Teng, H., Xu, Z. et al. Free-standing electrochemical biosensor for carcinoembryonic antigen detection based on highly stable and flexible conducting polypyrrole nanocomposite. Microchim Acta 188, 217 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00604-021-04859-1

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