Plasma Functionalized Carbon Interfaces for Biosensor Application: Toward the Real-Time Detection of O157:.

Nonthermal plasma, a nondestructive, fast, and highly reproducible surface functionalization technique, was used to introduce desired functional groups onto the surface of carbon powder. The primary benefit is that it is highly scalable, with a high throughput, making it easily adaptable to bulk production. The plasma functionalized carbon powder was later used to create highly specific and low-cost electrochemical biosensors. The functional groups on the carbon surface were confirmed using NH-temperature-programmed desorption (TPD) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis. In addition, for biosensing applications, a novel, cost-effective, robust, and scalable electrochemical sensor platform comprising in-house-fabricated carbon paste electrodes and a miniaturized E-cell was developed. Biotin-Streptavidin was chosen as a model ligand-analyte combination to demonstrate its applicability toward biosensor application, and then, the specific identification of the target 1577 was accomplished using an anti- 1577 antibody-modified electrode. The proposed biosensing platform detected 1577 in a broad linear range of (1 × 10-1 × 10) CFU/mL, with a limit of detection (LOD) of 0.1 CFU/mL. In addition, the developed plasma functionalized carbon paste electrodes demonstrated high specificity for the target 1577 spiked in pond water, making them ideal for real-time bacterial detection.