Mesoporous Gold: Substrate-Dependent Growth Dynamics, Strain Accumulation, and Electrocatalytic Activity for Biosensing

Hyeongyu Park; Mostafa Kamal Masud; Aditya Ashok; Minjun Kim; Md Abdul Wahab; Jun Zhou; Yukana Terasawa; Carlos Salomon Gallo; Nam-Trung Nguyen; Md Shahriar A Hossain; Yusuke Yamauchi; Yusuf Valentino Kaneti

doi:10.1002/smll.202311645

Mesoporous Gold: Substrate-Dependent Growth Dynamics, Strain Accumulation, and Electrocatalytic Activity for Biosensing

Small. 2024 Apr 24:e2311645. doi: 10.1002/smll.202311645. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Hyeongyu Park^{1

2}, Mostafa Kamal Masud¹, Aditya Ashok¹, Minjun Kim¹, Md Abdul Wahab³, Jun Zhou⁴, Yukana Terasawa⁵, Carlos Salomon Gallo⁶, Nam-Trung Nguyen⁷, Md Shahriar A Hossain^{1

2}, Yusuke Yamauchi^{1

8

9}, Yusuf Valentino Kaneti¹

Affiliations

¹ Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (AIBN), The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, 4072, Australia.
² School of Mechanical and Mining Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Architecture, and Information Technology (EAIT), The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, 4072, Australia.
³ Energy and Process Engineering Laboratory, School of Mechanical, Medical and Process Engineering, Faculty of Science, Queensland University of Technology, 2 George Street, Brisbane, QLD, 4000, Australia.
⁴ School of Information and Communication Technology, Griffith University, Brisbane, QLD, 4072, Australia.
⁵ Faculty of Advanced Science and Technology, Kumamoto University, 2-39-1 Chuo-ku, Kurokami, Kumamoto-shi, Kumamoto, 860-8555, Japan.
⁶ Translational Extracellular Vesicles in Obstetrics and Gynae-Oncology Group and UQ Centre for Extracellular Vesicle Nanomedicine, University of Queensland Centre for Clinical Research, Faculty of Medicine, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, 4029, Australia.
⁷ Queensland Micro- and Nanotechnology Centre (QMNC), Griffith University, Nathan Campus, QLD, 4111, Australia.
⁸ Department of Materials Process Engineering Graduate School of Engineering, Nagoya University, Nagoya, 464-8603, Japan.
⁹ Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Yonsei University, Seoul, 03722, South Korea.

PMID: 38659182
DOI: 10.1002/smll.202311645

Abstract

Understanding the growth of mesoporous crystalline materials, such as mesoporous metals, on different substrates can provide valuable insights into the crystal growth dynamics and the redox reactions that influence their electrochemical sensing performance. Herein, it is demonstrated how the amorphous nature of the glass substrate can suppress the typical <111> oriented growth in mesoporous Au (mAu) films. The suppressed <111> growth is manifested as an accumulation of strain, leading to the generation of abundant surface defects, which are beneficial for enhancing the electrochemical activity. The fine structuring attained enables dramatically accelerated diffusion and enhances the electrochemical sensing performance for disease-specific biomolecules. As a proof-of-concept, the as-fabricated glass-grown mAu film demonstrates high sensitivity in electrochemical detection of SARS-CoV-2-specific RNA with a limit of detection (LoD) as low as 1 attomolar (aM).

Keywords: SARS‐CoV‐2; biosensors; electrochemical sensing; lattice expansion; mesoporous gold; strain engineering.

Abstract

Grants and funding