Graphene-on-silver substrates for sensitive surface plasmon resonance imaging biosensors

Opt Express. 2011 Jan 17;19(2):458-66. doi: 10.1364/OE.19.000458.

Abstract

Taking advantage of the high impermeability property of graphene and the sharp surface plasmon resonance (SPR) curve of silver, we numerically demonstrate that SPR imaging biosensors with a graphene-on-silver substrate can be used to achieve the dramatically high sensitivity as well as to prevent silver oxidation. Results of our numerical study show that a silver substrate with a few graphene layers can significantly increase the imaging sensitivity, compared to the conventional gold-film-based SPR imaging biosensor. In particular, single layered graphene deposited on the 60-nm thick silver film amplifies the SPR imaging signal more than three times. Therefore, the proposed SPR substrate could potentially open a new possibility of SPR imaging detection for sensitive and high-throughput assessment of multiple biomolecular interactions.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Biopolymers / analysis*
  • Biosensing Techniques / instrumentation*
  • Equipment Design
  • Equipment Failure Analysis
  • Graphite / chemistry*
  • Silver / chemistry*
  • Surface Plasmon Resonance / instrumentation*

Substances

  • Biopolymers
  • Silver
  • Graphite