Electroactive Nanocarbon Can Simultaneously Work as Platform and Signal Generator for Label-Free Immunosensing

Electroactive nanocarbon can be defined as a carbon nanomaterial that contains electrochemically reducible oxygen functionalities. We show here how an electroactive nanocarbon material can work both as a platform and as a signal generator when developing an immunosensor for the detection of mycotoxins. The suitability of the material for the immobilization of the biorecognition element by the formation of multiple noncovalent interactions, and the concurrent ability to provide a significant reduction peak are combined here in a label-free, single-step immunosensor. The variation in the current intensity, owing to the reduction of the electroactive platform, is correlated to the electrochemical availability of the oxygen functionalities involved in the interaction with the biorecognition element first, and the antibody/antigen conjugate in the detection step. We demonstrated here a direct dependence between the signal generated from the electroactive nanocarbon platform and each step of the biorecognition event, which allows the selective and precise detection of the analyte under investigation.