Aptamer sandwich-based carbon nanotube sensors for single-carbon-atomic-resolution detection of non-polar small molecular species.

A portable sensor platform for the detection of small molecular species is crucial for the on-site monitoring of environmental pollutants, food toxicants, and disease-related metabolites. However, it is still extremely difficult to find highly selective and sensitive sensor platforms for general small molecular detection. Herein, we report aptamer sandwich-based carbon nanotube sensor strategy for small molecular detection, where aptamers were utilized to capture target molecules as well as to enhance the sensor signals. We successfully demonstrated the detection of non-polar bisphenol A molecules with a 1 pM sensitivity. Significantly, our sensors were able to distinguish between similar small molecular species with single-carbon-atomic resolution. Furthermore, using the additional biotin modification on labeling aptamer, we enhanced the detection limit of our sensors down to 10 fM. This strategy allowed us to detect non-polar small molecular species using carbon nanotube transistors, thus overcoming the fundamental limitation of field effect transistor-based sensors. Considering the extensive applications of sandwich assay for the detection of rather large biomolecules, our results should open up completely new dimension in small molecular detection technology and should enable a broad range of applications such as environmental protection and food safety.

[1]  Hyun Seok Song,et al.  Single‐Carbon‐Atomic‐Resolution Detection of Odorant Molecules using a Human Olfactory Receptor‐based Bioelectronic Nose , 2009 .

[2]  Kong,et al.  Nanotube molecular wires as chemical sensors , 2000, Science.

[3]  Chad A Mirkin,et al.  Nanostructures in biodiagnostics. , 2005, Chemical reviews.

[4]  E. Snow,et al.  1∕f noise in single-walled carbon nanotube devices , 2004 .

[5]  F. Pascal,et al.  1∕f noise and percolation in carbon nanotube random networks , 2007 .

[6]  P. M. Horn,et al.  Low-frequency fluctuations in solids: 1/f noise , 1981 .

[7]  Jordi Riu,et al.  Fast picomolar selective detection of bisphenol A in water using a carbon nanotube field effect transistor functionalized with estrogen receptor-alpha. , 2009, Biosensors & bioelectronics.

[8]  M. Lee,et al.  Linker-free directed assembly of high-performance integrated devices based on nanotubes and nanowires , 2006, Nature nanotechnology.

[9]  June-Ki Park,et al.  Large-scale assembly of carbon nanotube-based flexible circuits for DNA sensors , 2008, Nanotechnology.

[10]  Tian Chen,et al.  Electrochemical biosensor for estrogenic substance using lipid bilayers modified by Au nanoparticles. , 2010, Biosensors & bioelectronics.

[11]  Y. Chang,et al.  Carbon nanotube DNA sensor and sensing mechanism. , 2006, Nano letters.

[12]  Cees Dekker,et al.  Identifying the mechanism of biosensing with carbon nanotube transistors. , 2008, Nano letters.

[13]  Jeong-O Lee,et al.  Single-walled carbon nanotube biosensors using aptamers as molecular recognition elements. , 2005, Journal of the American Chemical Society.

[14]  M. Maeda,et al.  Development of a highly sensitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay for bisphenol A in serum. , 2002, The Analyst.

[15]  E. S. Snow,et al.  Chemical Detection with a Single-Walled Carbon Nanotube Capacitor , 2005, Science.

[16]  L. Mita,et al.  A thionine-modified carbon paste amperometric biosensor for catechol and bisphenol A determination. , 2010, Biosensors & bioelectronics.

[17]  Bingsheng Zhou,et al.  Analysis of estrogens in environmental waters using polymer monolith in-polyether ether ketone tube solid-phase microextraction combined with high-performance liquid chromatography. , 2006, Journal of chromatography. A.

[18]  Y. Miyahara,et al.  Open sandwich-based immuno-transistor for label-free and noncompetitive detection of low molecular weight antigen. , 2009, Analytical chemistry.

[19]  Minbaek Lee,et al.  "Sliding kinetics" of single-walled carbon nanotubes on self-assembled monolayer patterns: beyond random adsorption. , 2006, The Journal of chemical physics.

[20]  G. Grüner,et al.  Source of 1∕f noise in carbon nanotube devices , 2006 .

[21]  Xianggang Liu,et al.  Electrochemical oxidation behavior of bisphenol A at surfactant/layered double hydroxide modified glassy carbon electrode and its determination , 2011 .

[22]  A. Rinzler,et al.  Thermally activated low frequency noise in carbon nanotubes , 2006 .

[23]  Jeong-O Lee,et al.  Detection and titer estimation of Escherichia coli using aptamer-functionalized single-walled carbon-nanotube field-effect transistors. , 2008, Small.