Organic electrochemical transistor-based immuno-sensor using platinum loaded CeO nanosphere-carbon nanotube and zeolitic imidazolate framework-enzyme-metal polyphenol network.

This work demonstrates an organic electrochemical transistor (OECT) immuno-sensor with a detection limit down to fg mL. The OECT device transforms the antibody-antigen interaction signal by using the zeolitic imidazolate framework-enzyme-metal polyphenol network nanoprobe, which can produce electro-active substance (HO) through the enzyme-catalytic reaction. The produced HO is subsequently electrochemically oxidized at the platinum loaded CeO nanosphere-carbon nanotube modified gate electrode, resulting in an amplified current response of the transistor device. This immuno-sensor realizes the selective determination of vascular endothelial growth factor 165 (VEGF) down to the concentration of 13.6 fg mL. It also shows good applicable capacity for determining the VEGF that human brain microvascular endothelial cells and U251 human glioblastomas cells secreted in the cell culture medium. The ultrahigh sensitivity of the immuno-sensor is derived from excellent performances of the nanoprobe for enzyme loading and the OECT device for HO detection. This work may provide a general way to fabricate the OECT immuno-sensing device with high performances.