Improving Nanowire Sensing Capability by Electrical Field Alignment of Surface Probing Molecules

Abstract

We argue that the structure ordering of self-assembled probing molecular monolayers is essential for the reliability and sensitivity of nanowire-based field-effect sensors because it can promote the efficiency for molecular interactions as well as strengthen the molecular dipole field experienced by the nanowires. In the case of monolayers, we showed that structure ordering could be improved by means of electrical field alignment. This technique was then employed to align multilayer complexes for nanowire sensing applications. The sensitivity we achieved for detection of hybridization between 15-base single-strand DNA molecules is 0.1 fM and for alcohol sensors is 0.5 ppm. The reliability was confirmed by repeated tests on chips that contain multiple nanowire sensors.

The highly sensitive impedimetric biosensor in label free approach for hepatitis B virus DNA detection based on tellurium doped ZnO nanowires

“…In this paper, the highly sensitive HBV DNA impedimetric biosensor based on Te-doped ZnO was reported. PNA-DNA biosensor based on silicon nanowires 10 fM 10 fM-1 µM Concentration-dependent resistance [21] MiRNAs biosensor based on silicon nanowires 1 fM 1fM-1 nM Nanowire-based field-effect sensors [22] Nucleic acids biosensor based on silicon nanowires 0.1 fM 0.1 fM-100 nM SiNW-FETs field effect transistor biosensors [23] 15-base single-strand DNA Molecules biosensor based on silicon nanowire 0.1 fM 0.1 fM-2 pM Nanowire-based field-effect sensors [24] Nucleic Acids Nanobiosensor based on silicon nanowire 1 fM of target DNA 1 fM-1 nM SiNWs Field-Effect Transistor Nanosensors [25] DNA biosensor based on Carbon Nanotube 1 pM 1-10 pM Carbon nanotubes FET [26] DNA influenza A virus DNA biosensor based on Carbon Nanotube 1 pM 1 pM-10 nM CNT field effect transistor based DNA sensor [27] DNA biosensor based on graphene/Sinanowires diode-type 0.1 pM 0.1-500 nM Graphene/surface modified vertical-Si-NW-arrays junctions as diode-type biosensors [28] Hepatitis B virus DNA biosensor based on tellurium doped ZnO nanowires 0.1 pM 1 pM to 1 μM Electrochemical impedance spectra based on tellurium doped ZnO nanowires…”

Micro- and nano-structure based oligonucleotide sensors

“…Ions Cui et al, 2001;Luo et al, 2009;Wipf et al, 2013;Zhang et al, 2007Small molecules Wang et al, 2005Proteins Chua et al, 2009Kim et al, 2007;Lee et al, 2009;Lin et al, , , 2010Mishra et al, 2008;Stern et al, 2007;Tang et al, 2005, Tian et al, 2011Zhang et al, 2011;Zheng et al, 2005Viruses Patolsky et al, 2004Nucleic acids Bunimovich et al, 2006Chu et al, 2013;Li et al, , , 2005Ryu et al, 2010 chip designed to detect cardiac biomarkers from a finger-prick of human blood (Zhang et al, 2011). Gao et al (2011Gao et al ( , 2012 used a SiNW-based device to sense oligonucleotides of approximately 20 NTs in length with a LOD as low as 0.1 fM.…”

Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor-Compatible Silicon Nanowire Biofield-Effect Transistors as Affinity Biosensors

“…However, crosslinking between the alkoxysilane units may yield oligomerized silane structures on the surface, resulting in random orientations and rough layers that are thicker than a monolayer. To overcome the problem of the disordered monolayers, recent work demonstrated post-treatment of APTES-functionalized devices using high electric fields to align the internal dipoles of the APTES molecules, thus, decreasing the disorder in the monolayer [70]. Other methods to improve the APTES layer quality include using gas-phase deposition techniques [64].…”