A Robotic Nano-Patterning System for Localized Functionalization of Carbon Based Biosensors
Project: Research
Researcher(s)
- Wai Chiu King LAI (Principal Investigator / Project Coordinator)Department of Biomedical Engineering
- Meyya Meyyappan (Co-Investigator)
Description
There is an increasing demand for a reliable and rapid biosensing platform for ubiquitousapplications in healthcare, medicine (e.g. diseases assay, screening), environmental monitoring,food testing, security and many other fields. A biosensor is a device that utilizes a bioreceptor(e.g. antibody, enzyme, DNA) to detect a biological event upon the interaction with the targetanalyte and convert the event to measurable electrical signal via a transducer. Emerging carbonbased nano-materials, such as graphene, have been increasingly employed as electricaltransducers in biosensors due to their large surface area and high electron mobility, whichoffers the possibility for rapid and sensitive label-free detection of the specific type of analytes.However, the batch fabrication of graphene with the desired electrical characteristic and theeffective immobilization of the bioreceptor molecules onto the specific position of grapheneare still difficult to be accomplished, owing to the stable carbon-carbon bond in graphene andits nanoscale size. These technical issues are critical for the development of the graphene basedbiosensors for reliable and sensitive detection.The proposed research aims at developing a novel robotic nanopatterning technique togetherwith an electric-field-assisted micro-manipulation process for enhancing the current fabricationof high-sensitivity graphene based biosensors. The approach to achieve the objective comeswith the development of three core technologies including: 1) selection of the graphene withspecific electrical conductivity using dielectrophoresis (DEP) process for various biosensordesigns; 2) nanosized tip-based local oxidation technique to create defect sites on the selectedlocation of graphene sheet for enhanced binding of bioreceptor molecules and graphene, so thatthe efficient immobilization of the bioreceptor molecules onto graphene surface can beachieved at nanoscale; 3) a control algorithm and scheme for a customized nanorobotic systemto precisely control the position of binding sites over the graphene sheet.The proposed robotic nanopatterning system allows a direct and localized functionalizationof graphene for achieving a stronger attachment of the bioreceptor to the graphene. Moreimportantly, it enables the precise patterning of bioreceptor molecules on the desired graphenesurface in a controllable manner with nanoscale resolution, and thus increases the sensitivityand specificity of the biosensors. By incorporating the nanopatterning technique into thecustomized nanorobotic system, the functionalized graphene based biosensor will beeffectively fabricated and its ability to detect bacteria will be demonstrated. The researchserves as an important step in developing a high-throughput microfluidic-based bio-nanosensor array platform for real-time and rapid detection of multiple substances in future.Detail(s)
Project number | 9042039 |
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Grant type | GRF |
Status | Finished |
Effective start/end date | 1/01/15 → 23/05/19 |
- Robotic system,Nano-patterning ,Micro/nano- manipulation ,Micro/nano-sensors ,