Complex Liquid Crystal Emulsions for Biosensing

J Am Chem Soc. 2021 Jun 23;143(24):9177-9182. doi: 10.1021/jacs.1c04115. Epub 2021 Jun 10.

Abstract

Herein we describe a highly responsive optical biosensor based on dynamic complex liquid crystal (LC) emulsions. These emulsions are simple to prepare and consist of immiscible chiral nematic liquid crystals (N*) and fluorocarbon oils. In this work, we exploit the N* selective reflection to build a new sensing paradigm. Our detection strategy is based on changes in the LC/water interfacial activity of boronic acid polymeric surfactants caused by reversible interactions with IgG antibodies at the LC interface. Such biomolecular recognition events can vary the pitch length of the N* organization due to the presence of binaphthyl units in the polymeric structure, which are known to be powerful chiral dopants. We demonstrate that these interface-triggered reflection changes can be used as an effective optical read-out for the detection of the foodborne pathogen Salmonella.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Biosensing Techniques*
  • Boronic Acids / chemistry
  • Emulsions / chemistry
  • Immunoglobulin G / chemistry
  • Liquid Crystals / chemistry*
  • Salmonella / isolation & purification*
  • Surface-Active Agents / chemistry

Substances

  • Boronic Acids
  • Emulsions
  • Immunoglobulin G
  • Surface-Active Agents