Highly sensitive and reusable fluorescence microarrays based on hydrogenated amorphous silicon–carbon alloys

Carbohydrate Microarray for the Detection of Glycan–Protein Interactions Using Metal-Enhanced Fluorescence

“…To optimize this response, a-Si 0.8 C 0.2 :H coatings of varying thicknesses were deposited on Au NSs/glass substrates and the enhancement factor was evaluated by comparing with bare slide without Au NSs coated with a-Si 0.8 C 0.2 :H. The bare slide with an a-Si 0.8 C 0.2 :H optimized thickness of 124 nm shows optical properties equivalent to conventional glass slide while keeping the same surface chemistry modification based on Si−C bonds. 42,60 Figure 5a shows the resulting fluorescence images on different interfaces. The highest fluorescence signal occurs with a 3 nm-thick a-Si 0.8 C 0.2 :H layer, which is 1 order of magnitude higher than that recorded on a-Si 0.8 C 0.2 :H interfaces (124 nm) for both interactions.…”

“…42 This amorphous spacer can be easily deposited as a thin-film by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) in low-power regime and functionalized through robust Si−C covalent bonds. 47,48 Furthermore, the optical properties of a-Si 1−x C x :H can be adjusted by controlling the carbon content x and the thickness to minimize absorption in the visible range. 49,50 For example, coating a random metal nanoparticles assembly with an amorphous silicon−carbon alloy containing 20% of carbon (a-Si 0.8 C 0.2 :H) of about 5 nm in thickness followed by covalent attachment of oligonucleotides resulted in an ultrasensitive MEF-LSPR response, allowing for designing DNA biosensor with a detection limit of DNA hybridization in the low femtomolar range.…”

Rapid and sensitive identification of uropathogenic Escherichia coli using a surface-enhanced-Raman-scattering-based biochip

“…Additionally, these a-Si:H thin films have shown to be ideal for the construction of stable biosensors due to the possibility of ligand attachment through robust Si-C covalent bonds. [44][45] The integration of undecylenic acid functions onto a-Si:H is based on the photochemical hydrosilylation reaction, [46] followed by the amidation of a bifunctional oligo(ethylene glycol) OEG linker, HOOC-OEG 12 -NH 2 in a two-step process using the wellknown EDC/NHS coupling activation. [47][48] The presence of at least 8 OEG units proved to be highly efficient for limiting non-specific surface interactions with proteins like lectins.…”

ZnO nanorods-enhanced fluorescence for sensitive microarray detection of cancers in serum without additional reporter-amplification

“…A dielectric layer with well-defined thickness is often necessary to spatially separate the fluorophores and the metals to avoid the fluorescence quenching, which is time-consuming and costly. Optical interference coating can also enhance the fluorescent intensity by maximizing the photo-absorption and reflecting the emissive light; nevertheless, it needs to strictly control the thickness of the dielectric layer, thus resulting in high manufacturing expense (Bras et al, 2004;Cretich et al, 2009;Touahir et al, 2009).…”