Large-area grown ultrathin molybdenum oxides for label-free sensitive biomarker detection

• Published in: Nanoscale 2024-07, Vol.16 (27), p.1361-137
• Main Authors: Zhang, Jiaru, Luan, Yange, Ma, Qijie, Hu, Yihong, Ou, Rui, Szydzik, Crispin, Yang, Yunyi, Trinh, Vien, Ha, Nam, Zhang, Zhenyue, Ren, Guanghui, Jia, Hu Jun, Zhang, Bao Yue, Ou, Jian Zhen
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Aminopropyltriethoxysilane; Antigens; Biomarkers; Biosensors; Cancer; Charge materials; CMOS; Diagnosis; Glycine; IgG antibody; Labels; Molybdenum; Molybdenum oxides; Real time; Scale (corrosion); Serum albumin; Time response; Two dimensional materials
• ISSN: 2040-3364; 2040-3372; 2040-3372
• DOI: 10.1039/d4nr01275e

The rise of two-dimensional (2D) materials has provided a confined geometry and yielded methods for guiding electrons at the nanoscale level. 2D material-enabled electronic devices can interact and transduce the subtle charge perturbation and permit significant advancement in molecule discrimination technology with high accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity, leaving a significant impact on disease diagnosis and health monitoring. However, high-performance biosensors with scalable fabrication ability and simple protocols have yet to be fully realized due to the challenges in wafer-scale 2D film synthesis and integration with electronics. Here, we propose a molybdenum oxide (MoO x )-interdigitated electrode (IDE)-based label-free biosensing chip, which stands out for its wafer-scale dimension, tunability, ease of integration and compatibility with the complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) fabrication. The device surface is biofunctionalized with monoclonal anti-carcinoembryonic antigen antibodies (anti-CEA) via the linkage agent (3-aminopropyl)triethoxysilane (APTES) for carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) detection and is characterized step-by-step to reveal the working mechanism. A wide range and real-time response of the CEA concentration from 0.1 to 100 ng mL −1 and a low limit of detection (LOD) of 0.015 ng mL −1 were achieved, meeting the clinical requirements for cancer diagnosis and prognosis in serum. The MoO x -IDE biosensor also demonstrates strong surface affinity towards molecules and high selectivity using l -cysteine ( l -Cys), glycine (Gly), glucose (Glu), bovine serum albumin (BSA), and immunoglobulin G (IgG). This study showcases a simple, scalable, and low-cost strategy to create a nanoelectronic biosensing platform to achieve high-performance cancer biomarker discrimination capabilities. A molybdenum oxide (MoO x )-interdigitated electrode (IDE)-based label-free biosensing chip, functionalized with anti-carcinoembryonic antigen antibodies via APTES, achieves a wide range and low limit of detection for CEA.