Impedimetric cardiac biomarker determination in serum mediated by epoxy and hydroxyl of reduced graphene oxide on...

A label-free chemical bonding strategy mediated by reduced graphene oxide (rGO) basal plane functional groups has been developed for cardiac Troponin I (cTnI) detection. Four different chemical strategies on respective electrode sensing surface were precedingly examined using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. The impedimetric assessment was carried out by sweeping frequency at the range 0.1-500 kHz perturbated at a small amplitude of AC voltage (25 mV). The chemical strategy-4 denoted as S-4 shows a significant analytical performance on cTnI detection in spiked buffer and human serum, whereby the pre-mixture of rGO and (3-Aminopropyl)triethoxysilane (APTES) creates a large number of amine sites (-NH₂), which significantly enhanced the antibody immobilization without excessive functionalization. The as-fabricated immunosensor exhibited an ultra-low limit of detection of 6.3 ag mL^-1 and the lowest antigen concentration measured was at 10 ag mL^-1. The immunosensor showed a linear and wide range of cTnI detection (10 ag mL^-1-100 ng mL^-1) in human serum with a regression coefficient of 0.9716, rapid detection (5 min of binding time), and stable and highly reproducible bioelectrode response with RSD < 5%. Hence, the demonstrated S-4 strategy is highly recommended for other downstream biosensors applications.