Fabrication of sensitive bioelectrode based on atomically thin CVD grown graphene for cancer biomarker detection

Motivation behind the present work is to fabricate a cost effective and scalable biosensing platform for an easy and reliable detection of cancer biomarker Carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA). Here, we report the sensitive and selective detection of CEA using graphene based bio-sensing platform. Large sized (similar to 2.5 x 1.0 cm(2)), uniform, continuous, single and few layers graphene films have been grown on copper (Cu) substrate employing chemical vapor deposition (CVD) technique using hexane as a liquid precursor. Functional group has been created over Graphene/Cu substrate through pi-pi stacking of 1-pyrenebutanoic acid succinimidyl ester (PBSE). Further, to make the sensor specific to CEA, antibody of CEA (anti-CEA) has been covalently immobilized onto PBSE/Graphene/Cu electrode. Selective and sensitive detection of CEA is achieved by anti-CEA/PBSE/Graphene/Cu electrode through electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) measurements. Under optimal condition, the fabricated sensor shows linear response in the physiological range 1.0-25.0 ng mL(-1) (normal value similar to 5.0 ng mL(-1)), revealing sensitivity 563.4 Omega ng(-1) mL cm(-2) with a correlation coefficient of 0.996 and limit of detection (LOD) 0.23 ng mL(-1). In this way, one step electrode fabrication with high specific surface area provides a light weight, low cost, reliable and scalable novel biosensing platform for sensitive and selective detection of CEA. We believe that this bioelectrode equipped with specific recognition elements could be utilized for detection of other biomolecules too