Photoelectrochemical bioanalysis of antibiotics on rGO-Bi2WO6-Au based on branched hybridization chain reaction

Abstract

Herein a versatile photoelectrochemical (PEC) bioanalysis platform for sensitive and specific screening of low-abundance antibiotics (kanamycin, Kana, used in this case) was innovatively designed using rGO-Bi₂WO₆-Au as photoactive matrix and target-induced branched hybridization chain reaction (t-bHCR) for efficient signal amplification. To realize the high-performance of our PEC bioanalysis system, rational introduction of reduced graphene oxide (rGO) and Au nanoparticles (Au NPs) greatly accelerated the electron transfer and enhances photoactivity. As expected, the ternary nanocomposite (i.e., rGO-Bi₂WO₆-Au) system with cascade energy level exhibited intense PEC signal responses thanks to multistep electron-transfer (MET) mechanism. Upon sensing the target Kana, t-bHCR is readily implemented, thus resulting in the assembly of numerous CuS nanoparticle (CuS NP). As a result, the loading CuS NPs from hyper-branched structure boosted the electron donors (ascorbic acid) consumption and enhanced the steric hindrance, synergistically decrease the photoelectric response. Under the optimized testing conditions, the t-bHCR-based PEC bioanalysis exhibited superior analytical performance with a linear range of 1 pM to 5 nM target Kana and limit of detection down to 0.78 pM. Additionally, favorable stability, great anti-interference ability and satisfactory accuracy for the analysis of actual samples were acquired. Impressively, the concept of t-bHCR-mediated provides an alternative to construct PEC bioanalysis and inspire more interest in the design of advanced PEC bioanalysis through nucleic acid-related signal amplification.

Keywords: Branched hybridization chain reaction; Isothermal signal amplification; Multistep electron-transfer; Photoelectrochemical bioanalysis; rGO-Bi(2)WO(6)-Au.