Overcoming Debye length limitations: Three-dimensional wrinkled graphene field-effect transistor for ultra-sensitive adenosine triphosphate detection

Yue Ding; Chonghui Li; Meng Tian; Jihua Wang; Zhenxing Wang; Xiaohui Lin; Guofeng Liu; Wanling Cui; Xuefan Qi; Siyu Li; Weiwei Yue; Shicai Xu

doi:10.1007/s11467-023-1281-7

Overcoming Debye length limitations: Three-dimensional wrinkled graphene field-effect transistor for ultra-sensitive adenosine triphosphate detection

Front Phys (Beijing). 2023;18(5):53301. doi: 10.1007/s11467-023-1281-7. Epub 2023 May 24.

Authors

Yue Ding^{1

2}, Chonghui Li^{2

3}, Meng Tian^{1

2}, Jihua Wang^{2

3}, Zhenxing Wang², Xiaohui Lin^{2

3}, Guofeng Liu², Wanling Cui^{2

3}, Xuefan Qi², Siyu Li², Weiwei Yue¹, Shicai Xu^{2

3}

Affiliations

¹ School of Physics and Electronics, Shandong Normal University, Jinan, 250014 China.
² Shandong Key Laboratory of Biophysics, Institute of Biophysics, Dezhou University, Dezhou, 253023 China.
³ Shandong Engineering Laboratory of Swine Herd Health Big Data and Intelligent Monitoring, Dezhou University, Dezhou, 253023 China.

Abstract

Adenosine triphosphate (ATP) is closely related to the pathogenesis of certain diseases, so the detection of trace ATP is of great significance to disease diagnosis and drug development. Graphene field-effect transistors (GFETs) have been proven to be a promising platform for the rapid and accurate detection of small molecules, while the Debye shielding limits the sensitive detection in real samples. Here, a three-dimensional wrinkled graphene field-effect transistor (3D WG-FET) biosensor for ultra-sensitive detection of ATP is demonstrated. The lowest detection limit of 3D WG-FET for analyzing ATP is down to 3.01 aM, which is much lower than the reported results. In addition, the 3D WG-FET biosensor shows a good linear electrical response to ATP concentrations in a broad range of detection from 10 aM to 10 pM. Meanwhile, we achieved ultra-sensitive (LOD: 10 aM) and quantitative (range from 10 aM to 100 fM) measurements of ATP in human serum. The 3D WG-FET also exhibits high specificity. This work may provide a novel approach to improve the sensitivity for the detection of ATP in complex biological matrix, showing a broad application value for early clinical diagnosis and food health monitoring.

Electronic supplementary materials: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11467-023-1281-7 and https://journal.hep.com.cn/fop/EN/10.1007/s11467-023-1281-7.

Keywords: ATP in complex human serum; Debye shielding; field effect transistor; three-dimensional wrinkled graphene; ultra-sensitive.