Sensitive determination of arginine based on hydrogen bonding by a surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensor

Abstract

A highly sensitive arginine sensor based on optical fiber surface plasmon resonance (SPR) and 11-mercaptoundecanoic acid (MUA) was studied and implemented in this work. The method of modifying the mercaptoundecanoic acid molecule on the surface of the sensing area was proposed initially by using molecular self-assembly technology in order to complete the detection of arginine. The detection principle is a hydrogen bond-based aggregation between mercaptoundecanoic acid and arginine. The close alignment of the mercaptoundecanoic acid molecules allows the aggregation of arginine to affect changes within the surrounding local refractive index. This aggregation was selective for the arginine molecules. The sensor probe has a detection limit of 0.005 μM and a sensitivity of up to 1474 nm/μM. The entire detection system, including the probe, has the advantages of being low cost, small in size, easy to operate, and uses low power. This approach has the potential to be developed as a mobile and fast-detection method.