A porous CuO nanowire-based signal amplification immunosensor for the detection of carcinoembryonic antigens

Abstract

A novel electrochemical immunosensor was developed for carcinoembryonic antigens (CEA) based on gold nanoparticle load carbon nanotubes (CNTs–AuNPs) as an immunosensor platform and porous CuO nanowire supported ferrocene (pCuOw@Fc) as signal amplification labels. The pCuOw were prepared by a simple decomposition of the Cu(OH)₂ precursor. The products were characterized using transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR). The electrochemical performance of the resulting immunosensor was investigated by cyclic voltammetry (CV), and the electrochemical immunosensor showed enhanced electrochemical performance toward the detection of CEA with a range from 0.005 ng mL⁻¹ to 80 ng mL⁻¹ and a detection limit of 0.0008 ng mL⁻¹ (S/N = 3). The proposed immunosensor was successfully used in determining the CEA in real samples and holds great potential for the sensitive electrochemical biosensing of other analytes.