SPR biosensor with a graphene overlayer for carcinoma detection.

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Materials Science
• Nanotechnology

Background:

• Early carcinoma detection is crucial for effective treatment and improved patient outcomes.
• Label-free, high-sensitivity biosensors are needed for sensitive and accurate cancer biomarker detection.
• Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) biosensors offer promising label-free detection capabilities.

Purpose of the Study:

• To computationally evaluate multilayer SPR architectures for enhanced sensitivity and accuracy in carcinoma detection.
• To investigate the performance of a CaF2/Cu/TiO2/Graphene multilayer SPR biosensor.
• To assess the potential of this biosensor for cost-effective and sensitive cancer biomarker detection.

Main Methods:

• Utilized the transfer-matrix method for computational evaluation of SPR architectures at 633 nm.
• Analyzed reflectance, resonance-angle shifts, and near-field profiles for CaF2/Cu/TiO2/Graphene multilayer stacks.
• Derived key performance metrics including sensitivity, detection accuracy (DA), figure of merit, and limit of detection (LOD) across a concentration range of 1-5 ng/mL.

Main Results:

• The CaF2/Cu/TiO2/Graphene multilayer SPR biosensor demonstrated superior performance.
• Achieved a high sensitivity of 481.29°/RIU and a detection accuracy (DA) of 0.80.
• Exhibited pronounced evanescent-field confinement at the sensing interface, outperforming TiO2-only and Cu-only configurations.

Conclusions:

• The developed CaF2/Cu/TiO2/Graphene SPR biosensor platform shows significant potential for sensitive and cost-effective carcinoma biomarker detection.
• The integration of graphene enhances the performance of SPR biosensors for early cancer diagnosis.
• The findings support the experimental realization of this advanced biosensing technology for clinical applications.