A non-enzymatic electrochemical biosensor based on SiO2–Au nanoparticles for hemoglobin detection

Abstract

In this study, a simple non-enzymatic hemoglobin (Hb) biosensor based on SiO₂–Au nanoparticles (SiO₂–Au NPs) was prepared and investigated. The structure and morphology of the SiO₂–Au NPs were characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and UV-vis spectroscopy. Fourier transform infrared spectra (FTIR) and circular dichroism (CD) spectra were obtained to test the biocompatibility of the SiO₂–Au NPs. The electrochemical properties were determined via cyclic voltammetry (CV), electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), and differential pulse voltammetry (DPV). Under the optimized conditions, the linear regression equation between the peak currents and the concentration of Hb was i (μA) = −51.57269 + 83.14106c (mg mL⁻¹) (R² = 0.9979) with a detection limit of 204.46 ng mL⁻¹. In addition, the electrochemical biosensor possessed good anti-interference performance. Due to the superior performance of SiO₂–Au NPs, this method shows great potential applications for the direct sensing of Hb for the purpose of evaluating meat quality.