Aligned carbon nanotube thin films for DNA electrochemical sensing

Carbon nanotubes are interesting materials for DNA electrochemical sensing due to their unique electric properties: high surface area, fast heterogeneous electron transfer, and electrochemical stability. In this work aligned Carbon NanoTube (CNT) thin films were designed and tested as candidate platforms for DNA immobilization and for the development of an electrochemical genosensor. The films were prepared by Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD) using acetylene and ammonia as precursor gases and nickel particles as catalyst. A preliminary electrochemical characterization was performed using cyclic voltammetry since, so far, these films have been used only for gas sensing. The surfaces were then covalently functionalized with a DNA oligonucleotide probe, complementary to the sequence of the most common inserts in the GMOs: the Promoter 35S. The genosensor format involved the immobilization of the probe onto the sensor surface, the hybridization with the target-sequence and the electrochemical detection of the duplex formation. Careful attention was paid to the probe immobilization conditions in order to minimize the signal due to non-specifically adsorbed sequences. For the detection of the hybridization event both label-free and enzyme-labelled methods were investigated. In case of the enzyme-labelled method a target concentration at nanomolar level can be easily detected, with a linear response from 50 nM to 200 nM, whereas the label-free method showed a linear response between 0.5 μM and 10 μM. The reproducibility was 11% and 20% with the enzyme-labelled method and the label-free method, respectively. The batch-to-batch reproducibility of the different sensors was also evaluated.