Center for Functional Nanomaterials Seminar

Semiconducting carbon nanomaterials have attracted significant attention in recent decades due to their unique electronic, mechanical, optical, thermal, and chemical properties. Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) is a 1D nanomaterial that has found versatile applications in material research and device fabrication for sensing, transistors, photovoltaics, and other electronics. Biosensors are the critical element in diagnostic devices for many diseases. Field-effect transistor (FET) biosensor utilizing SWNTs as the transducing element shows high sensitivity and specificity compared to optical and electrochemical biosensors. However, the major challenge is the high cost and complicated procedures of the traditional fabrication of FET biosensors on silicon wafers, which can be unaffordable in low-resource settings. To overcome the challenge, I utilized the inkjet printing technology to pattern the SWNTs-based FET sensor arrays on paper-based microfluidics. This approach has improved both the sensing performance and the affordability of FET biosensors.

In this presentation, I will present my recent research advances on inkjet-printing patterned paper-based FET biosensors. Firstly, to maximize the semiconductor with higher aqueous solubility and higher bioconjugation capacity, a zero-length linker 1-pyrene carboxylic acid (PCA) was used for the non-covalent functionalization of SWNTs. The synthesis of PCA/SWNTs resulted in a high solubility of the semiconductors in a water-based solution up to 4 mg/mL. Material characterizations were conducted for the PCA/SWNTs complex. Secondly, the water-based semiconductor solution was formulated as inkjet-printable inks for precise deposition on the paper substrate to pattern the FET sensor arrays. Various ink formulations were developed for different functional nanomaterials that retained the bioactivity of the bioreceptor and met the rheological requirements for stable inkjet printing. The SWNTs percolation profile was characterized to identify the optimum network density and provide the highest biosensing sensitivity. Thirdly, the cost-effective paper-based microfluidics was programmed and optimized with fluid delay and acceleration functions to automate the solution delivery. The paper-based FET biosensor arrays patterned by the inkjet-printed SWNTs were optimized, quantified, and assembled to detect multiple disease biomarker molecules at ultralow concentrations, including proteins and micro RNAs, fitting the needs for affordable point-of-care use for disease diagnosis.