Nanoporous Polymeric Grating-Based Optical Biosensors (Preprint)

Abstract

This paper demonstrates a label-free biological sensing method using nanoporous polymer gratings. The high index modulation (0.07) of the nanoporous polymer grating structure generates a high signal-to-noise ratio, making the structure an ideal label-free biodetection platform. The fabrication process of the nanoporous polymeric grating involves holographic interference patterning and a functionalized pre-polymer syrup that facilitates the immobilization of biomolecules onto the polymeric sensor surface. The performance of the nanoporous polymeric sensor is evaluated by sequentially capturing biomolecules (biotin, steptavidin, biotinylated anti-rabbit IgG, and rabbit-IgG) onto the nanoporous regions and monitoring the changes in diffraction and transmission intensity. We have observed that diffraction intensity decreases and transmission intensity increases as biomolecules bind to the polymer structures, an observation consistent with our theoretical analysis. Furthermore, high molecular selectivity is demonstrated within this assay by immobilizing anti-rabbit IgG within the nanoporous polymer and observing the changes in the transmission and diffraction intensities upon the grating's exposure to rabbit and goat IgG (control). The two optical responses are profoundly different for each biomolecule and the selective binding of rabbit IgG is clearly evident. The nanoporous polymer grating-based biosensing method described in this paper is inexpensive, label-free, and amenable as a high-throughput assay, characteristics pertinent in many biomedical research and clinical applications.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Mar 01, 2007
Accession Number
ADA474860

Entities

People

  • John R. Waldeisen
  • Pamela F. Lloyd
  • Timothy J. Bunning
  • Tony J. Huang
  • Vincent K. Hsiao

Organizations

  • Pennsylvania State University

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Air Force Research Laboratories
  • Biomolecules
  • Biosensors
  • Detection
  • Detectors
  • Diffraction
  • Electron Microscopy
  • Fabrication
  • Governments
  • Intensity
  • Lasers
  • Light Sources
  • Materials
  • Military Research
  • Optical Detection
  • Polymers

Readers

  • Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry
  • Nanocomposite Materials Science
  • Nanofabrication and Microfabrication.

Technology Areas

  • Biotechnology