A Biosensor platform based on the Carbon Nanotube Network for detecting antibody antigen reaction

Abstract

In this dissertation, a biosensor platform based on the carbon nanotube network (CNN) to detect the biomolecules such as DNA or proteins (target biomarker) and to quantify the concentration of them is presented. Three salient features of the platform can be summarized as

First, the sensor device with the concentric electrode structure is fabricated by using the standard semiconductor process. The carbon nanotube (CNT) channel between the concentric electrodes is formed by the dip-coating method. And the enhancement of current stability and resistance uniformity of the sensor are achieved by the thermal evaporation of the gold nanoparticle (AuNP) on the carbon nanotube channel. Second, for application of the AuNP decorated CNT device as the protein biosensor, the antibody is immobilized on the AuNP by the surface treatment with the developed chemical protocols. Third, to enhance the change of the current response (sensitivity) on the CNT channel due to the antibody-antigen reaction, the electrical and the chemical methods such as the transient measurement, the ACEF method, the length of linker and the deactivation of NHS ester are applied and introduced. Through this research, the possibility of the protein biosensor platform based on CNT is pursued and shown. The sensor platform based on the electrical sensing is expected to be used in detecting various kinds of proteins with the sufficient sensitivity and reliability in real time.