| Authors: | Han, Changseok; Doepke, Amos; Cho, Wondong; Likodimos, Vlassis; de la Cruz, Armah A.; Back, Tyson; Heineman, William R.; Halsall, H. Brian; Shanov, Vesselin N.; Schulz, Mark J.; Falaras, Polycarpos; Dionysiou, Dionysios D. |
| Title: | A Multiwalled-Carbon-Nanotube-Based Biosensor for Monitoring Microcystin-LR in Sources of Drinking Water Supplies |
| Type: | Journal Article |
| Publisher: | Advanced Functional Materials |
| Year: | 2013 |
| Volume: | 23 |
| Issue: | 14 |
| Start Page: | 1807 |
| End Page: | 1816 |
| DOI: | 10.1002/adfm.201201920 |
| WEB-link: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/adfm.201201920 |
| Abstract: | A multiwalled carbon nanotube (MWCNT)-based electrochemical biosensor is developed for monitoring microcystin-LR (MC-LR), a toxic cyanobacterial toxin, in sources of drinking water supplies. The biosensor electrodes are fabricated using vertically well-aligned, dense, millimeter-long MWCNT arrays with a narrow size distribution, grown on patterned Si substrates by water-assisted chemical vapor deposition. High temperature thermal treatment (2500 °C) in an Ar atmosphere is used to enhance the crystallinity of the pristine materials, followed by electrochemical functionalization in alkaline solution to produce oxygen-containing functional groups on the MWCNT surface, thus providing the anchoring sites for linking molecules that allow the immobilization of MC-LR onto the MWCNT array electrodes. Addition of the monoclonal antibodies specific to MC-LR in the incubation solutions offers the required sensor specificity for toxin detection. The performance of the MWCNT array biosensor is evaluated using micro-Raman spectroscopy, including polarized Raman measurements, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, cyclic voltammetry, optical microscopy, and Faradaic electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. A linear dependence of the electron-transfer resistance on the MC-LR concentration is observed in the range of 0.05 to 20 ¼g L1, which enables cyanotoxin monitoring well below the World Health Organization (WHO) provisional concentration limit of 1 ¼g L1 for MC-LR in drinking water. |
| Keywords: | biosensors, carbon nanotubes, cyanotoxins, drinking water, microcystin-LR |
