Ultrasensitive Antibiotic Perceiving Based on Aptamer-Functionalized Ultraclean Graphene Field-Effect Transistor...

Area of Science:

• Environmental Science
• Biosensor Technology
• Materials Science

Background:

• Antibiotic pollution poses a significant threat to public health and effective bacterial infection treatment.
• Accurate detection of antibiotics in water is critical for environmental monitoring and bioassays.
• Existing detection methods often lack the required sensitivity for low-concentration antibiotic analysis.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a simple and ultrasensitive biosensor for detecting antibiotics at low concentrations.
• To improve the performance of field-effect transistor (FET) biosensors for antibiotic detection.
• To investigate the efficacy of a new graphene preparation technique for enhanced biosensor performance.

Main Methods:

• Fabrication of a FET-based biosensor utilizing ultraclean graphene prepared via a camphor-rosin clean transfer (CRCT) scheme.
• Functionalization of the FET with aptamers for specific tetracycline detection.
• Characterization of the biosensor's performance, including sensitivity, dynamic range, and detection limit.
• Comparison of CRCT-prepared FETs with those made using conventional PMMA transfer (CPT).

Main Results:

• The CRCT method improved FET carrier mobility by over 10 times compared to the CPT method.
• The aptamer-functionalized CRCT-FET biosensor achieved a dynamic detection range of 5 orders of magnitude.
• A high sensitivity of 21.7 mV/decade and a low detection limit of 100 fM were obtained.
• The developed biosensor demonstrated good stability and significantly outperformed CPT-based biosensors.

Conclusions:

• The CRCT technique enables the preparation of ultraclean graphene, significantly enhancing FET-based biosensor performance.
• The developed aptamer-functionalized CRCT-FET biosensor provides a highly sensitive and stable platform for ultrasensitive antibiotic detection.
• This approach offers a promising solution for monitoring antibiotic pollution in environmental samples, as validated in Bohai Bay.