TY - JOUR
T1 - Diameter-optimized high-order waveguide nanorods for fluorescence enhancement applied in ultrasensitive bioassays
AU - Du, Baosheng
AU - Tang, Chengchun
AU - Zhao, Dan
AU - Zhang, Hong
AU - Yu, Dengfeng
AU - Yu, Miao
AU - Balram, Krishna C.
AU - Gersen, Henkjan
AU - Yang, Bin
AU - Cao, Wenwu
AU - Gu, Changzhi
AU - Besenbacher, Flemming
AU - Li, Junjie
AU - Sun, Ye
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 The Royal Society of Chemistry.
PY - 2019/8/14
Y1 - 2019/8/14
N2 - Development of fluorescence enhancement (FE) platforms based on ZnO nanorods (NRs) has sparked considerable interest, thanks to their well-demonstrated potential in chemical and biological detection. Among the multiple factors determining the FE performance, high-order waveguide modes are specifically promising in boosting the sensitivity and realizing selective detection. However, quantitative experimental studies on the influence of the NR diameter, substrate, and surrounding medium, on the waveguide-based FE properties remain lacking. In this work, we have designed and fabricated a FE platform based on patterned and well-defined arrays of vertical, hexagonal prism ZnO NRs with six distinct diameters. Both direct experimental evidence and theoretical simulations demonstrate that high-order waveguide modes play a crucial role in FE, and are strongly dependent on the NR diameter, substrate, and surrounding medium. Using the optimized FE platform, a significant limit of detection (LOD) of 10-16 mol L-1 for Rhodamine-6G probe detection is achieved. Especially, a LOD as low as 10-14 g mL-1 is demonstrated for a prototype biomarker of carcinoembryonic antigen, which is improved by one order compared with the best LOD ever reported using fluorescence-based detection. This work provides an efficient path to design waveguiding NRs-based biochips for ultrasensitive and highly-selective biosensing.
AB - Development of fluorescence enhancement (FE) platforms based on ZnO nanorods (NRs) has sparked considerable interest, thanks to their well-demonstrated potential in chemical and biological detection. Among the multiple factors determining the FE performance, high-order waveguide modes are specifically promising in boosting the sensitivity and realizing selective detection. However, quantitative experimental studies on the influence of the NR diameter, substrate, and surrounding medium, on the waveguide-based FE properties remain lacking. In this work, we have designed and fabricated a FE platform based on patterned and well-defined arrays of vertical, hexagonal prism ZnO NRs with six distinct diameters. Both direct experimental evidence and theoretical simulations demonstrate that high-order waveguide modes play a crucial role in FE, and are strongly dependent on the NR diameter, substrate, and surrounding medium. Using the optimized FE platform, a significant limit of detection (LOD) of 10-16 mol L-1 for Rhodamine-6G probe detection is achieved. Especially, a LOD as low as 10-14 g mL-1 is demonstrated for a prototype biomarker of carcinoembryonic antigen, which is improved by one order compared with the best LOD ever reported using fluorescence-based detection. This work provides an efficient path to design waveguiding NRs-based biochips for ultrasensitive and highly-selective biosensing.
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U2 - 10.1039/c9nr02330e
DO - 10.1039/c9nr02330e
M3 - Article
C2 - 31323078
AN - SCOPUS:85070852575
SN - 2040-3364
VL - 11
SP - 14322
EP - 14329
JO - Nanoscale
JF - Nanoscale
IS - 30
ER -