Aluminum Nanoholes for Optical Biosensing

Biosensors

Carlos Angulo Barrios¹  Vໜtor Canalejas-Tejero¹  Sonia Herranz²  Javier Urraca²  Mar໚ Cruz Moreno-Bondi²  Miquel Avella-Oliver³  Ángel Maquieira³  Rosa Puchades³ 

[1] Instituto de Sistemas Optoelectrónicos y Microtecnología (ISOM), ETSI Telecomunicación, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Ciudad Universitaria s/n, Madrid 28040, Spain; E-Mail:;Departamento de Química Analítica, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Ciudad Universitaria s/n, Madrid 28040, Spain; E-Mails:;Instituto de Reconocimiento Molecular y Desarrollo Tecnológico (IDM), Departamento de Química, Universidad Politécnica de Valencia, Camino de Vera s/n, Valencia 46022, Spain; E-Mails:

关键词: aluminum;    metal nanoholes;    nanohole arrays;    surface plasmon resonance;    optical biosensing;    nanopatterning;    transfer printing;    molecularly imprinted polymer;    photopolymerization;   

DOI  :  10.3390/bios5030417

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

Sub-wavelength diameter holes in thin metal layers can exhibit remarkable optical features that make them highly suitable for (bio)sensing applications. Either as efficient light scattering centers for surface plasmon excitation or metal-clad optical waveguides, they are able to form strongly localized optical fields that can effectively interact with biomolecules and/or nanoparticles on the nanoscale. As the metal of choice, aluminum exhibits good optical and electrical properties, is easy to manufacture and process and, unlike gold and silver, its low cost makes it very promising for commercial applications. However, aluminum has been scarcely used for biosensing purposes due to corrosion and pitting issues. In this short review, we show our recent achievements on aluminum nanohole platforms for (bio)sensing. These include a method to circumvent aluminum degradation—which has been successfully applied to the demonstration of aluminum nanohole array (NHA) immunosensors based on both, glass and polycarbonate compact discs supports—the use of aluminum nanoholes operating as optical waveguides for synthesizing submicron-sized molecularly imprinted polymers by local photopolymerization, and a technique for fabricating transferable aluminum NHAs onto flexible pressure-sensitive adhesive tapes, which could facilitate the development of a wearable technology based on aluminum NHAs.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2015 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.