An effective electrical sensing scheme using AC electrothermal flow on a biosensor platform based on a carbon nanotube network

摘要

We report a simple and efficient electrical sensing scheme that can be used to overcome the "diffusion limit" of affinity-based biosensors by incorporating the structural advantage of a concentric electrode biosensor platform and the microstirring effect of AC electrothermal flow (ACEF). To prove the effect of ACEF on the biosensor performance, we performed both simulations and experiments for the detection of cardiac troponin-Ⅰ, which is a biomarker for acute myocardial infarction. The finite element simulation results indicate that AC bias to the electrode (which has a concentric structure in our device) can induce fast convection flow, which facilitates the transport of the target molecules to the binding region located between the two electrodes. In our device, the channel region made of a carbon nanotube network decorated with gold nanoparticles, which act as the attaching sites of the probe molecules, is used as a highly sensitive electrical channel. We find that the electrical sensing method exhibited extremely fast sensing speeds compared with those under no bias (diffusion-limited) conditions.