Separating photoanode from recognition events: toward a general strategy for a self-powered photoelectrochemical immunoassay with both high sensitivity and anti-interference capabilities

Abstract

A general, efficient strategy for a self-powered PEC immunoassay with an evident photocurrent response was proposed by separating the photoanode from recognition events. The immunoassay demonstrates the exciting features of both high sensitivity and anti-interference capabilities.

Optical cytosensors for the detection of circulating tumour cells

“…78 increase the point-of-care application of PEC cytosensors. [77][78][79] In this method, a photoanode acts as the photo signal provider, and a biocathode acts as the cell sensing and capturing area in a photoelectrochemical cell. Fan et al designed a PEC biosensor through separation of a photoanode and biocathode and using a ternary combination of TiO 2 , MoS 2 , and carbon nitride quantum dot (CNQD) nanomaterials to promote selective detection of MCF-7 cells against HeLa cells.…”

Advanced Functional Electroactive and Photoactive Materials for Monitoring the Environmental Pollutants

“…[ 42 ] Although these works have significantly advanced the conception of PEC sensors, the immature sensing method may suffer from poor selectivity since the photocatalyst can induce the reactions of many compounds. [ 43 ] In order to address this problem, some recognition elements with a specific identification ability including biological enzymes, [ 44 ] nucleic acids, [ 45 ] antigens or antibodies, [ 46 ] and molecularly imprinted polymers [ 47 ] have been introduced into the PEC sensing system, which greatly improved the practicability of the analysis process. Accordingly, the general PEC sensor based on photoactive materials can be depicted as Figure 3c, and the electric signals of this PEC system are recorded prior to and after the recognition event for quantitative analysis of analyte.…”

Self-Powered Cathodic Photoelectrochemical Aptasensor Comprising a Photocathode and a Photoanode in Microfluidic Analysis Systems

“…Compared with photoanode sensors, photocathode sensors with better anti-interference to the reductive material are more beneficial to the actual sample detection. 15,16 However, holes as the majority carriers of photocathode sensors own a higher rate of charge recombination than electrons as the majority carriers of photoanode sensors. 17−19 Fortunately, a new self-powered PEC biosensor comprising a photoanode and a photocathode could be used to well overcome the above drawbacks.…”

“…Interestingly, according to the properties of semiconductors, PEC biosensors can be divided into n-type semiconductor-based photoanode sensors and p-type semiconductor-based photocathode sensors. Compared with photoanode sensors, photocathode sensors with better anti-interference to the reductive material are more beneficial to the actual sample detection. , However, holes as the majority carriers of photocathode sensors own a higher rate of charge recombination than electrons as the majority carriers of photoanode sensors. − Fortunately, a new self-powered PEC biosensor comprising a photoanode and a photocathode could be used to well overcome the above drawbacks. Especially, the unique self-powered PEC strategy is to assemble the photocathode as a working microelectrode (WE) for sensing the analyte and the photoanode as a reference/counter microelectrode (RE/CE) for amplifying the signal.…”