Nanophotonic interferometric immunosensors for label-free and real-time monitoring of chemical contaminants in marine environment

Abstract

With the aim to prevent the oceans ecosystems degradation, there is an urgent need to develop portable sensing tools able to operate directly in the environment, avoiding the transportation of the ocean samples to analytical laboratories. To achieve this long-term objective, we describe here the work carried out to develop and characterize a multiplexed photonic immunosensor for the direct analysis of toxic chemical targets in marine samples. We have employed immunosensors based on photonic Bimodal Waveguide (BiMW) interferometric devices fabricated in silicon technologies combined with specific receptors and antibodies for the targeted chemical targets. Several procedures for the functionalization of the S₃iN₄ sensor surfaces have been evaluated based on wet silanization methods and further covalent receptor immobilization. The developed immunosensors, based on competitive inhibition assays, show LODs at μg/L or ng/L levels, depending on the analyzed chemical target.