Mediated amperometric immunosensing using single walled carbon nanotube forests

Abstract

A prototype amperometric immunosensor was evaluated based on the adsorption of antibodies onto perpendicularly oriented assemblies of single wall carbon nanotubes called SWNT forests. The forests were self-assembled from oxidatively shortened SWNTs onto Nafion/iron oxide coated pyrolytic graphite electrodes. The nanotube forests were characterized using atomic force microscopy and resonance Raman spectroscopy. Anti-biotin antibody strongly adsorbed to the SWNT forests. In the presence of a soluble mediator, the detection limit for horseradish peroxidase (HRP) labeled biotin was 2.5 pmol ml⁻¹ (2.5 nM). Unlabelled biotin was detected in a competitive approach with a detection limit of 16 nmol ml⁻¹ (16 µM) and a relative standard deviation of 12%. The immunosensor showed low non-specific adsorption of biotin–HRP (approx. 0.1%) when blocked with bovine serum albumin. This immunosensing approach using high surface area, patternable, conductive SWNT assemblies may eventually prove useful for nano-biosensing arrays.