Paper transducers to detect plasmon variations in colorimetric nanoparticle biosensors

Abstract Detecting variations in the localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) of gold nanoparticles is a widespread approach for developing colorimetric biosensors. This is usually performed with a large spectrophotometer, which is not suitable for in-field measurements, or with the naked eye, which only allows detecting large spectral variations leading to clear changes in color. Here we demonstrate that patterns printed on paper can transduce LSPR variations caused by the aggregation of plasmonic nanosensors using a mobile device as the reader. The sensitivity of the proposed paper transducers is tested with a new enzyme-less signal generation mechanism for biosensors based on triggering the aggregation of gold nanoparticles in the presence of neutravidin. A competitive immunoassay using this mechanism and the proposed transducers can detect the model analyte C-reactive protein with a limit of detection of 3·10−8 g mL−1 within 1 h, which is comparable to an ELISA using a spectrophotometer to detect the signal. The fabrication of the transducers only requires a common toner printer, and the signal can be detected with the ubiquitous smartphone using a downloadable app, which makes the proposed detection platform ideal for developing mobile biosensors for global health applications.