Rapid and label-free metamaterial-based biosensor for fatty acid detection with terahertz time-domain spectroscopy

Mingjie Tang; Liangping Xia; Dongshan Wei; Shihan Yan; Mingkun Zhang; Zhongbo Yang; Huabin Wang; Chunlei Du; Hong-Liang Cui

doi:10.1016/j.saa.2019.117736

Rapid and label-free metamaterial-based biosensor for fatty acid detection with terahertz time-domain spectroscopy

Spectrochim Acta A Mol Biomol Spectrosc. 2020 Mar 5:228:117736. doi: 10.1016/j.saa.2019.117736. Epub 2019 Nov 3.

Authors

Mingjie Tang¹, Liangping Xia², Dongshan Wei³, Shihan Yan⁴, Mingkun Zhang⁴, Zhongbo Yang⁴, Huabin Wang⁴, Chunlei Du⁴, Hong-Liang Cui⁵

Affiliations

¹ Chongqing Key Laboratory of Multi-Scale Manufacturing Technology, Chongqing Institute of Green and Intelligent Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chongqing, 400714, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China.
² Chongqing Key Laboratory of Multi-Scale Manufacturing Technology, Chongqing Institute of Green and Intelligent Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chongqing, 400714, China; School of Electronic Information Engineering, Yangtze Normal University, Chongqing, 408100, China.
³ Chongqing Key Laboratory of Multi-Scale Manufacturing Technology, Chongqing Institute of Green and Intelligent Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chongqing, 400714, China; School of Electrical Engineering and Intelligentization, Dongguan University of Technology, Dongguan, 523808, Guangdong, China.
⁴ Chongqing Key Laboratory of Multi-Scale Manufacturing Technology, Chongqing Institute of Green and Intelligent Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chongqing, 400714, China.
⁵ Chongqing Key Laboratory of Multi-Scale Manufacturing Technology, Chongqing Institute of Green and Intelligent Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chongqing, 400714, China. Electronic address: hcui@cigit.ac.cn.

PMID: 31753643
DOI: 10.1016/j.saa.2019.117736

Abstract

A rapid method for detecting fatty acids (FAs) using terahertz time-domain spectroscopy (THz-TDS) technology combined with a metamaterial-based THz sensor was developed. We measured the THz responses to oleic acid, linoleic acid and α-linoleic acid with different numbers of double-bond, α-linoleic acid and γ-linoleic acid with different conformations. In addition, in order to explore the reason for the observed redshifts of the resonance frequencies of the four FAs, the dielectric constants of the FAs were measured in the THz region. Furthermore, the four fatty acids were also attempted to be identified by Raman spectroscopy, which was difficult to accomplish unambiguously because of the effect of fluorescence. This result thus demonstrates the power and usefulness of metamaterial-assisted THz-TDS in the rapid determination of the FAs, and its potential as a versatile tool for investigation of biological metabolism, and for food product quality, safety inspection and control.

Keywords: Dielectric constant; Fatty acid; Label-free; THz sensor; Terahertz time-domain spectroscopy.

MeSH terms

Biosensing Techniques / economics
Biosensing Techniques / instrumentation*
Equipment Design
Fatty Acids / analysis*
Finite Element Analysis
Food Analysis / economics
Food Analysis / instrumentation
Terahertz Spectroscopy / economics
Terahertz Spectroscopy / instrumentation*
Time Factors

Substances

Fatty Acids