Nickel-phosphate pompon flowers nanostructured network enables the sensitive detection of microRNA

An electrochemical immuno-nanogenosensor is developed based on noble-metal-free nickel phosphate nanostructure (NiPNs) as an excellent biocompatible material for miRNA detection in blood serum and urine samples without using indicators for the first time. The pompon flower-like morphology of NiPNs is synthesized, and characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction pattern (XRD), fourier transform-infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), and electrochemical impedance methods. The novel NiPNs nanostructured interface was constructed by coordinate covalent bonding between Ni and phosphate group of probe DNA. The constructed NiPNs-p-DNA surface served as the amplified hybridization platform enabling efficient access to numerous target microRNA sequences. As a result, the developed NiPFNs biosensing platform displayed excellent sensitivity, selectivity, and ultralow experimental limit-of-detection (LOD) of 0.034 pM (S/N = 3) as compared with other Ni phosphide nanostructures. This simple and efficient approach is highly suitable for the development of point-of-care detection systems. To the extent of our knowledge, this is the first report on trace level detection of miRNAs employing non-noble Ni metal nanostructures based biosensing platform.