Ink-jet printed, blended polymer-based microdisk resonators for controlling non-specific adsorption of biomolecules

A blended FC-V-50 and TZ-001 polymer-based microdisk laser was fabricated by the ink-jet printing method and. used for biosensing applications. The FC-V-50 polymer has a negative charge due to the presence of carboxyl functional groups, and the TZ-001 polymer has a positive charge due to the tertiary amine group at a pH of seven. In biosensing applications, non-specific adsorption due to opposite charges of biomolecules and microdisk surfaces can adversely affect the performance of the biosensor. By mixing FC-V-50 and TZ-001 polymers in different ratios, the microdisk surface charge was controlled, and the non-specific adsorption of bovine serum albumin and lysozyme was studied. In addition, the label-free biosensing of streptavidin was demonstrated using a blended polymerbased microdisk laser. This work reports, to the best of our knowledge, the first demonstration of a blended polymer microdisk laser for controlling the non-specific adsorption of biomolecules. (C) 2021 Optical Society of America

Automated summary

By controlling the ratio of two blended polymers, the surface charge of the microdisk could be modulated to affect the non-specific adsorption of biomolecules. This study demonstrated the potential value of blended polymer microdisk lasers in biosensing applications.