Electrochemical deoxyribonucleic acid biosensor based on the self-assembly film with nanogold decorated on ionic liquid modified carbon paste electrode

Abstract

An electrochemical DNA biosensor was fabricated by self-assembling probe single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) with a nanogold decorated on ionic liquid modified carbon paste electrode (IL-CPE). IL-CPE was fabricated using 1-butylpyridinium hexafluorophosphate as the binder and the gold nanoparticles were electrodeposited on the surface of IL-CPE (Au/IL-CPE). Then mercaptoacetic acid was self-assembled on the Au/IL-CPE to obtain a layer of modified film, and the ssDNA probe was further covalently-linked with mercaptoacetic acid by the formation of carboxylate ester with the help of N-(3-dimethylamino-propyl)-N′-ethylcarbodiimide hydrochloride and N-hydroxysuccinimide. The hybridization reaction with the target ssDNA was monitored with methylene blue (MB) as the electrochemical indicator. Under the optimal conditions, differential pulse voltammetric responses of MB was proportional to the specific ssDNA arachis sequences in the concentration range from 1.0 × 10 −11 to 1.0 × 10 −6 mol L −1 with the detection limit as 1.5 × 10 −12 mol L −1 (3 σ). This electrochemical DNA sensor exhibited good stability and selectivity with the discrimination ability of the one-base and three-base mismatched ssDNA sequences. The polymerase chain reaction product of arachis Arabinose operon D gene was successfully detected by the proposed method, which indicated that the electrochemical DNA sensor designed in this paper could be further used for the detection of specific ssDNA sequence.