Detection of Ammonia-Oxidizing Bacteria (AOB) Using a Porous Silicon Optical Biosensor Based on a Multilayered Double Bragg Mirror Structure

Abstract

We successfully demonstrate a porous silicon (PS) double Bragg mirror by electrochemical etching at room temperature as a deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) label-free biosensor for detecting ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB). Compared to various other one-dimension photonic crystal configurations of PS, the double Bragg mirror structure is quite easy to prepare and exhibits interesting optical properties. The width of high reflectivity stop band of the PS double Bragg mirror is about 761 nm with a sharp and deep resonance peak at 1328 nm in the reflectance spectrum, which gives a high sensitivity and distinguishability for sensing performance. The detection sensitivity of such a double Bragg mirror structure is illustrated through the investigation of AOB DNA hybridization in the PS pores. The redshifts of the reflectance spectra show a good linear relationship with both complete complementary and partial complementary DNA. The lowest detection limit for complete complementary DNA is 27.1 nM and the detection limit of the biosensor for partial complementary DNA is 35.0 nM, which provides the feasibility and effectiveness for the detection of AOB in a real environment. The PS double Bragg mirror structure is attractive for widespread biosensing applications and provides great potential for the development of optical applications.

A lectin-coupled porous silicon-based biosensor: label-free optical detection of bacteria in a real-time mode

“…typhi Lectin (ConA) 4.7 × 10 3 , 25 cfu/mL, 7.4 × 10 4 , 6.3 × 10 2 Var. 41 QCM E. coli Lectin (ConA) 7.5 × 10 2 7.5 × 10 2 –7.5 × 10 7 52 RIFTS-PSi E. coli OAKs 103 10 3 –10 5 53 RIFTS-PSi L. acidophilus Aptamer 106 – 29 RIFTS-PSi Ammonia-oxidizing bacteria DNA sequence – – 14 RIFTS-PSi E. coli Antibody 103 10 3 –10 7 15 RIFTS-PSi E. coli Antibody 103 10 3 –10 5 13 RIFTS-PSi E. coli K12 Antibody 104 103 54 RIFTS-PSi E. coli Lectin (ConA) 103 3 × 10 3 –3 × 10 5 This work …”

“…Based on these facts, in recent years, many PSi-based platforms are proposed for various applications such as drug delivery, characterizing of cellular processes such as phospholipid bilayer formation and discrimination of single nucleotide changes in DNA 10 – 12 . Detection of bacteria by this nanostructure (PSi) is another area of research with a large number of publications in the literature 13 , 14 .…”

“…Recently a photonic crystal of porous silicon has been employed for bacterial detection based antibody-antigen interaction. In addition to one-dimension photonic crystal configurations of PSi, other sophisticated structures such as Bragg mirrors and microcavities have been employed for biological application 14 , 17 – 19 .…”

Nanosilicon-Based Composites for (Bio)sensing Applications: Current Status, Advantages, and Perspectives

“…As mentioned below, biofunctionalization plays a very important role in bioselective layer evolution and allows for the binding of organic molecules to a non-organic nano-Si surface without unspecific interaction. Currently, a number of biofunctionalization protocols have been proposed: silanization [3,19,53,54,55,56,57,58,59,60,61,62,63,64,65,66,67], aminosilanization [68,69,70], direct immobilization [16,22,71,72], enzyme [18] or peptide [73] treatment, phospholipid bilayers formation [74], hydrosilylation treated by N-Hydroxysuccinimide and 1-Ethyl-3-(3-dimethylaminopropyl)carbodiimide (NHS/EDC) [75,76,77] or resazurin [78], and polymer synthesis [79]. However, the most common technique is silanization, due to the possibility of controlling the thickness of the(3-Aminopropyl)triethoxysilane (APTES) layer as well as using different cross-linking agents (glutaraldehyde, NHS/EDS) [18,80].…”

“…Another nano-Si optical response suitable for (bio)molecule detection is reflectance or other optical parameters related to reflectance [22,48,53,55,56,57,58,62,65,67,68,70,71,74,76,85,86,87,88,89,90,91,92,93,94,95,96]. Generally, the (bio)sensor technique based on reflectance response can be performed via reflective index (RI) [71] or optical density [16] (OD) measurements in the initial state and after the addition of the analyte.…”