Silicon nanonets for biological sensing applications with enhanced optical detection ability

Optical sensors based on fluorescence methods are used in numerous areas of society, ranging from healthcare to environmental monitoring. But the race to elaborate portable and highly sensitive detection systems leads to the huge development of nanomaterial-based sensors. Here, we have fabricated a silicon nanonet, or silicon nanowire (SiNW) network, -based biosensor for DNA hybridization detection by fluorescence microscopy. We demonstrate that by leveraging the properties of the SiNWs such as their large specific surface and the high aspect ratio, these nanonet sensors have significantly enhanced sensitivity and better selectivity compared to plane substrates. The fluorescence signal shows an intensity increasing with the SiNW density on the nanonet and for the denser nanonets, the detection limit for DNA hybridization is 1 nM. The elaborated Si nanonet-based DNA sensors present more than 50% change in fluorescence intensity between complementary DNA and 1 base mismatch DNA which shows their high selectivity. Finally, we have integrated the Si nanonet-based sensor into a DNA chip and we have shown that this selective sensor can be reproduced on a large scale area.