NQS-Doped PDMS Solid Sensor: From Water Matrix to Urine Enzymatic Application

The development of in situ analytical devices has gained outstanding scientific interest. A solid sensing membrane composed of 1,2-naphthoquinone-4-sulfonate (NQS) derivatizing reagent embedded into a polymeric polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) composite was proposed for in situ ammonium (NH4+) and urea (NH2CONH2) analysis in water and urine samples, respectively. Satisfactory strategies were also applied for urease-catalyzed hydrolysis of urea, either in solution or glass-supported urease immobilization. Using diffuse reflectance measurements combined with digital image processing of color intensity (RGB coordinates), qualitative and quantitative analyte detection was assessed after the colorimetric reaction took place inside the sensing membrane. A suitable linear relationship was found between the sensor response and analyte concentration, and the results were validated by a thymol-PDMS-based sensor based on the Berthelot reaction. The suggested sensing device offers advantages such as rapidity, versatility, portability, and employment of non-toxic reagents that facilitate in situ analysis in an energy-efficient manner.

Fabrication of a solid sensor based on phenazine derivative film for enhancing sensing properties of biogenic amine and applying for monitoring shrimp freshness

In practical application, fixing the fluorescent sensor on the solid composite film matrix can settle the boundaries of keeping the sensor in the solution state. Herein, we firstly presented...

Multiresonant plasmonic nanostructure for ultrasensitive fluorescence biosensing

A novel metallic nanostructure for efficient plasmon-enhanced fluorescence readout of biomolecular binding events on the surface of a solid sensor chip is reported. It is based on gold multiperiod plasmonic grating (MPG) that supports spectrally narrow plasmonic resonances centered at multiple distinct wavelengths. They originate from diffraction coupling to propagating surface plasmons (SPs) forming a delocalized plasmonic hotspot associated with enhanced electromagnetic field intensity and local density of optical states at its surface. The supported SP resonances are tailored to couple with the excitation and emission transitions of fluorophores that are conjugated with the biomolecules and serve as labels. By the simultaneous coupling at both excitation and emission wavelengths, detected fluorescence intensity is enhanced by the factor of 300 at the MPG surface, which when applied for the readout of fluorescence immunoassays translates to a limit of detection of 6 fM within detection time of 20 min. The proposed approach is attractive for parallel monitoring of kinetics of surface reactions in microarray format arranged on a macroscopic footprint. The readout by epi-fluorescence geometry (that inherently relies on low numerical aperture optics for the imaging of the arrays) can particularly take advantage of the reported MPG. In addition, the proposed MPG nanostructure can be prepared in scaled up means by UV-nanoimprint lithography for future practical applications.