Recycling microcavity optical biosensors

Opt Lett. 2011 Apr 1;36(7):1092-4. doi: 10.1364/OL.36.001092.

Abstract

Optical biosensors have tremendous potential for commercial applications in medical diagnostics, environmental monitoring, and food safety evaluation. In these applications, sensor reuse is desirable to reduce costs. To achieve this, harsh, wet chemistry treatments are required to remove surface chemistry from the sensor, typically resulting in reduced sensor performance and increased noise due to recognition moiety and optical transducer degradation. In the present work, we suggest an alternative, dry-chemistry method, based on O2 plasma treatment. This approach is compatible with typical fabrication of substrate-based optical transducers. This treatment completely removes the recognition moiety, allowing the transducer surface to be refreshed with new recognition elements and thus enabling the sensor to be recycled.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Biosensing Techniques / instrumentation*
  • Biotin / metabolism
  • Equipment Reuse
  • Optical Devices*
  • Oxygen / chemistry
  • Plasma Gases / chemistry
  • Silicon Dioxide / chemistry
  • Transducers

Substances

  • Plasma Gases
  • Biotin
  • Silicon Dioxide
  • Oxygen