Venkatraman V.L., Reddy R.K., Zhang F., Hsu V., Ulrich B., Prasad S.
Portland State University, US
Keywords: biosensor, electrical, iridium oxide, nanowires
Pt, Ir, Au and few other precious metals have highly conducive electrical and chemical properties; hence have been widely used in pH sensors and biomolecular sensing applications. The chief objective of this research is to highlight and demonstrate the advantages that Iridium Oxide (IrOx) nanowires offers over these competing metals in improving the performance metrics of biomolecular sensing. Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy, DC voltage response and cyclic voltammetry were some of the studies conducted on Pt, Ir, Au, TiN and IrOx thin films compared with IrOx nanowires to find that nanowires highly increase the sensitivity of detection. Iridium oxide has very good conductivity and very high charge storing capacity, and hence has an ability to detect very small changes in the surface charge. Nanowires have an ideal morphology to crowd protein molecules and highly increase the surface area of interaction. Higher area of interaction along with iridium oxide’s high intrinsic physical adsorption rate, strongly enhance the rate of immobilization of biomolecules and hence enabling high sensitivity detection. Future work entails trying to grow the IrOx nanowires on a Pt or an Ir film to increase the overall sensitivity of detection and also to optimize the growth parameters to achieve best results.
Journal: TechConnect Briefs
Volume: 2, Nanotechnology 2008: Life Sciences, Medicine & Bio Materials – Technical Proceedings of the 2008 NSTI Nanotechnology Conference and Trade Show, Volume 2
Published: June 1, 2008
Pages: 569 - 572
Industry sectors: Medical & Biotech | Sensors, MEMS, Electronics
Topic: Chemical, Physical & Bio-Sensors
ISBN: 978-1-4200-8504-4