Interface Studies for Gold-based Electrochemical DNA Sensors

Gold based label-free electrochemical DNA sensors have been widely studied for biomarker diagnostics. The sensitivity and reproducibility of these sensors are determined by the sensing interface: the DNA modified gold surfaces. This thesis systematically studies the preparation processes of the DNA sensor interfaces as well as their effects on the sensor performance. First, three pretreatment methods to clean the gold electrode surface and their influence on the subsequent binding of thiolated molecules were carefully investigated. As we found that the surface pretreatment method involving cyclic voltammetry (CV) in H2SO4 may induce structural changes to the gold surface, thus greatly impacting the thiolated molecule binding, the factors influencing this pretreatment method were studied. Practical guidelines were summarized for preparing a clean and reproducible gold surface prior to functionalization. Afterwards, the effects of the surface coverage density of probe DNA and the salt concentration on the probe-target DNA hybridization on a gold sensing surface were systematically investigated using surface plasmon resonance (SPR) analysis. Based on the SPR results, the maximum potentiometric signal that could be generated by the DNA hybridization on the surface, and the detection limits, were estimated for different experimental conditions. These estimations were further compared with experimental results obtained using silicon nanowire field effect transistors (SiNW FET) with DNA modified gold on the gate oxide. Practical limitations for the potentiometric DNA sensor were analysed and discussed. Finally, the stability and reproducibility issues on the electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) analyses of DNA hybridization were also studied on the aptamer/mercaptohexanol (MCH)-modified gold surface. The root cause for the drift problems in this type of sensor and the temperature effects on the aptamer/MCH modified surface were identified. This thesis could serve as a practical reference for the preparation and understanding of the sensing interface of gold-based electrochemical DNA sensors