Gamma-Ray Sterilization Effects in Silica Nanoparticles/γ-APTES Nanocomposite-Based pH-Sensitive Polysilicon Wire Sensors

Sensors

Jing-Jenn Lin¹ 

[1]Department of Applied Materials and Optoelectronic Engineering, National Chi Nan University, Puli, Nantou, 54561, Taiwan

关键词: 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane;    polydimethylsiloxane;    silica nanoparticles;    γ-ray sterilization;    post-sterilization UV annealing;   

DOI  :  10.3390/s110908769

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

In this paper, we report the γ-ray sterilization effects in pH-sensitive polysilicon wire (PSW) sensors using a mixture of 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane (γ-APTES) and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS)-treated hydrophobic fumed silica nanoparticles (NPs) as a sensing membrane. pH analyses showed that the γ-ray irradiation-induced sensitivity degradation of the PSW pH sensor covered with γ-APTES/silica NPs nanocomposite (γ-APTES+NPs) could be restored to a condition even better than prior to γ-ray irradiation by 40-min of post-sterilization room-temperature UV annealing. We found that the trapping charges caused by γ-ray sterilization primarily concentrated in the native oxide layer for the pH sensor covered with γ-APTES, but accumulated in the γ-APTES+NPs layer for the γ-APTES+NPs-covered sensor. It is believed that mixing the PDMS-treated silica NPs into γ-APTES provides many γ-APTES/SiO₂ interfaces for the accumulation of trapping charges and for post-sterilization UV oxidation, thus restoring γ-ray-induced sensor degradation. The PDMS-treated silica NPs not only enhance the sensitivity of the pH-sensitive PSW sensors but are also able to withstand the two-step sterilization resulting from γ-ray and UV irradiations. This investigation suggests γ-ray irradiation could be used as a highly-efficient sterilization method for γ-APTES-based pH-sensitive biosensors.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2011 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.