Optimization of the Spray-Deposited Carbon Nanotube Semiconducting Channel for Electrolyte-Gated Field-Effect Transistor-Based Biosensing Applications

Abstract

Electrochemical biosensors are widely investigated as they represent attractive analytical tools for detection of a broad range of bio-molecules, thanks to their simplicity, high sensitivity and short response time. Especially, biosensors employing an electrolyte-gated field-effect transistors (EG-FETs) as electrochemical transduction element have gained increasing interest, due to the signal amplification and the intrinsic low voltage range of operation. In this work we report the fabrication of flexible EG-FETs using spray-deposited semiconducting carbon nanotubes (CNTs), with a specific focus on the optimization of the CNT channel to optimize the performance of the resulting CNT-based EG-FET (EG-CNTFET). The transfer and the output characteristic of different devices with varying spraying parameters were tested, finding out that only devices with source-drain resistance of about ≤10 kΩ showed proper EG-CNTFET operation: for these devices we recorded a typical p-type behavior with an on–off ratio of 214 A/A up to 469 A/A (depending on number of the spray-deposited CNT layers). The fabricated EG-CNTFETs were functionalized with anti-spermidine antibodies to detect polyamine spermidine - a well-known chemical indicator of food quality. To ensure controlled immobilization and at the same time to preserve the electrical properties of the nanotubes, the spray-deposited films were modified with a bifunctional molecule, which attaches to the CNT via non-covalent π - π interactions and leaves a free NHS-ester group for amide coupling of the antibodies. The fabricated EG-CNTFET-based immunosensors showed a linear detection range for spermidine from 10-3 to 102 nM, with the sensitivities ranging from -1.03 to -2.45 μA/decade.