Direct growth of few-layer graphene on AlN-based resonators for high-sensitivity gravimetric biosensors

Autor: Jimena Olivares, Teona Mirea, Lorena Gordillo-Dagallier, Bruno Marco, José Miguel Escolano, Marta Clement, Enrique Iborra
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2019
Předmět:
Zdroj: Beilstein Journal of Nanotechnology, Vol 10, Iss 1, Pp 975-984 (2019)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 2190-4286
DOI: 10.3762/bjnano.10.98
Popis: We present the successful growth of few-layer graphene on top of AlN-based solidly mounted resonators (SMR) using a low-temperature chemical vapour deposition (CVD) process assisted by Ni catalysts, and its effective bio-functionalization with antibodies. The SMRs are manufactured on top of fully insulating AlN/SiO2 acoustic mirrors able to withstand the temperatures reached during the CVD growth of graphene (up to 650 °C). The active AlN films, purposely grown with the c-axis tilted, effectively excite shear modes displaying excellent in-liquid performance, with electromechanical coupling and quality factors of around 3% and 150, respectively, which barely vary after graphene integration. Raman spectra reveal that the as-grown graphene is composed of less than five weakly coupled layers with a low density of defects. Two functionalization protocols of the graphene are proposed. The first one, based on a covalent binding approach, starts with a low-damage O2 plasma treatment that introduces a controlled density of defects in graphene, including carboxylic groups. After that, 1-ethyl-3-(3-dimethylaminopropyl)carbodiimide hydrochloride/N-hydroxysuccinimide (EDC/NHS) chemistry is used to covalently bind streptavidin molecules to the surface of the sensors. The second functionalization protocol is based on the non-covalent bonding of streptavidin on hydrophobic graphene surfaces. The two protocols end with the effective bonding of biotinylated anti-IgG antibodies to the streptavidin, which leaves the surface of the devices ready for possible IgG detection.
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