Antifouling Spiky Nanoelectrodes Enhance Detection of Bacterial mRNA
Nanomaterials have extensive applications in the development of sensitive biosensors, but the influence of their specific structural properties remains unclear. This work presents a platform that can provide mechanistic insight into how nanostructured electrodes improve the performance of electrochemical biosensors. We designed nanoelectrodes with sub-10 nm spike features through a combination of top-down lithography and solution-based synthesis. These anisotropic structures facilitated rapid electron-transfer, minimized biofouling, and promoted efficient target capture. Using these spiky nanoelectrodes in a biosensor, we detected bacterial mRNA at aM-levels and within 3 min. Our findings reveal the mechanism underlying signal enhancement from high-curvature regions on nanostructured electrodes, highlighting the structure-property relationships of nanostructures in electrochemical sensing.
Authors
- Yuhao Leo Wu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0002-6227-3963)
- Jagotamoy Das (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2724-1827)
- Shana O. Kelley (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3360-5359)
- Jin Jia (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2194-5607)
- Teri W. Odom (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8490-292X)
- Connor D. Flynn (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0009-5692-5719)
- Kimberly T. Riordan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0010-4454)
- Yi Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9509-7962)
Institutions
- Northwestern University (US)
- McCormick Theological Seminary (US)
- McCormick (United States) (US)
- Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (United States) (US)
- Chan Zuckerberg Biohub Chicago
Publication Details
- Journal
- Journal of the American Chemical Society
- Published
- 2025-02-24
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.4c18175
- Citations
- 7
- Primary Topic
- Advanced biosensing and bioanalysis techniques
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 5.64
Funders
- International Institute for Nanotechnology, Northwestern University
- Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
- Division of Graduate Education
- Division of Chemistry