Development of an ordered microarray of electrochemiluminescent nanosensors

Abstract

A microarray of electrochemiluminescent (ECL) nanosensors for remote detection is reported. Such nanosensor arrays were created on the distal face of coherent optical fibre bundles by adapting near-field optical probe and nanoelectrode methodologies. The fabrication process allows the production of high-density microarrays of nanosensors where each optical aperture is surrounded by a gold nanoring electrode. The initial architecture of the optical fibre bundle is retained and thus the microarray keeps its imaging properties. The electrochemical response of the array displays a steady-state current. This feature indicates that the nanoelectrodes forming the array can be considered as diffusively independent. In other words, each ring-shaped electrode of the array probes electrochemically a different micro-environment. We also show that this microdevice can be used as an ECL nanosensor microarray. Indeed, ECL light is initiated by the gold nanoring electrode in the presence of a co-reactant biospecies, NADH. A fraction of the isotropically electrochemically generated light is collected by the same aperture, transmitted by the corresponding fibre core and eventually imaged by a CCD camera. The gold coating therefore acts as an electrode material and also to confine the ECL light in each etched core. Such nanostructured microdevice integrates ECL-light generation, collection and imaging in a microarray format.