Enhancement of the Enzymatic Biosensor Response through Targeted Electrode Surface Roughness

Abstract

The field of enzymatic biosensors applied to brain electrochemistry has rapidly expanded over the last few years, thanks in part to their excellent selectivity to specific target species. Much current research is therefore focused on enhancing the electrochemical signal, which often involves the detection of stoichiometric amounts of H2O2 formed as part of the enzyme mechanism. This opens the possibility of enhancing a biosensor's performance by facilitating the H2O2 oxidation signal through surface modification. Here, we investigate the impact of the roughness of the platinum surface on the biosensor response, where rougher platinum surfaces show greater activity for H2O2 oxidation, and therefore enhanced biosensor sensitivity. Through careful manipulation of the electrode surface roughness, we are able to show a significant improvement to the LOD when using a rougher electrode surface. Additionally, we have shown that this enhanced surface roughness has no detrimental effects toward the electrode response time. This suggests that surface roughness could be a simple and easy to implement means of enhancing the sensitivity of electrode-based enzymatic biosensors, and is an important factor to consider when studying other aspects of biosensor fabrication.