Abstract
We demonstrate a localized protein immobilization method based on controlled physical adsorption on the three-phase boundary of an aqueous phase, a gas phase, and a polymeric material. By imprinting micrometer and sub-micrometer pillars onto a polymeric foil, superhydrophobic surfaces are fabricated. Those structures force the fluid locally into the Cassie–Baxter state and generate an artificial three-phase boundary at the edges of the imprinted pillars. First, fluorescence-labeled bovine serum albumin (BSA) and streptavidin dissolved in various buffer solutions are utilized to investigate protein adsorption on the structured surfaces. A stable adsorption of the respective protein on the three-phase boundary is observed. The following experiments use streptavidin adsorbed on the pillars to immobilize biotinylated antibodies for analyte detection. The pillars are passivated with an excess concentration of BSA to reduce nonspecific protein adsorption. Implemented in a lab-on-a-chip device, the proposed immobilization method is utilized in a sandwich assay to detect the inflammation marker C-reactive protein in human serum, showing the potential of this immobilization method for diagnostic applications. The method overcomes laborious procedures to immobilize proteins on thermoplastic materials, which enables the fast transfer of point-of-care applications from research to commercial scale.
Published Version
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