Inexpensive Design of a Bio-Chip for Disease Diagnostics: Molecular Biomarker Sensing Microchip Patterned from a Soft Oxometalate-Perylene-Based Hybrid Composite using Thermo-Optical Laser Tweezers

In this work, we have developed linear micro-patterns of phosphotungstic acid soft oxometalate (SOM) and perylene (as fluorophore) hybrid composite on a glass substrate using a thermo-optical tweezers set-up, and used it for sensing of biologically important molecules such as glucose, uric acid and ascorbic acid. Bulk scale studies on the SOM-fluorophore hybrid were initially performed to optimize the fabrication of the pattern. The aqueous dispersion of the hybrid composite was subjected to UV/Visible absorption and fluorescence measurements. The linear micro-patterns were characterized using Raman spectroscopy and AFM. The ability of the patterns to sense different biomarkers was monitored by fluorescence microscopy at different time intervals and could open up possibilities for inexpensive and facile detection of biologically important molecules, and thus introduce a new paradigm in reliable, robust, and low cost disease diagnostics.