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Improvement of Sensitivity and Limit of Detection in a Nanogap Biosensor by Controlling Surface Wettability

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Abstract

Controlling the surface wettability of a biosensor improves the sensitivity and limit of detection (LOD) in an electrical label-free detection. The sensing area is treated as hydrophilic and its outer surface is treated as hydrophobic by using a passivation layer composed of CYTOPTM. The hydrophilic sensing area enhances biomolecule interactions between receptors and analytes, whereas the hydrophobic outer sensing region suppresses them. Consequently, the sensitivity and LOD are improved by the increased analyte concentration during the biomolecule interactions. We varied the areal ratio of the hydrophobic region to the hydrophilic region and investigated its effect via detection of cardiac troponin I, which is a biomarker that is used in determining the prognosis of myocardial infarctions. Threefold of sensitivity and 3 orders of LOD in the hydrophobic passivation were improved over the non-passivation.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Research and Development Program under grant NRDP 2005-2001274 for the development of biomedical function monitoring biosensors and by the Center for Integrated Smart Sensor through the National Research Foundation of Korea funded by the Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology under grant CISS-2012M3A6A6054187.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Electrical Engineering, KAIST, 291 Daehak-ro, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon, 305-701, Republic of Korea

    Chang-Hoon Kim, Jae-Hyuk Ahn, Jee-Yeon Kim, Ji-Min Choi & Yang-Kyu Choi

  2. Department of Chemistry, Chung-Ang University, 84 Heukseok-ro, Dongjak-gu, Seoul, 156-756, Republic of Korea

    Tae Jung Park

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  1. Chang-Hoon Kim
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  2. Jae-Hyuk Ahn
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  3. Jee-Yeon Kim
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  4. Ji-Min Choi
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  5. Tae Jung Park
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Correspondence to Yang-Kyu Choi.

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Kim, CH., Ahn, JH., Kim, JY. et al. Improvement of Sensitivity and Limit of Detection in a Nanogap Biosensor by Controlling Surface Wettability. BioNanoSci. 3, 192–197 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12668-013-0081-x

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