Biorecognition in Organic Field Effect Transistors Biosensors: The Role of the Density of States of the Organic Semiconductor

Biorecognition is a central event in biological processes in the living systems that is also widely exploited in technological and health applications. We demonstrate that the Electrolyte Gated Organic Field Effect Transistor (EGOFET) is an ultrasensitive and specific device that allows us to quantitatively assess the thermodynamics of biomolecular recognition between a human antibody and its antigen, namely, the inflammatory cytokine TNF alpha at the solid/liquid interface. The EGOFET biosensor exhibits a superexponential response at TNF alpha concentration below 1 nM with a minimum detection level of 100 pM. The sensitivity of the device depends on the analyte concentration, reaching a maximum in the range of clinically relevant TNF alpha concentrations when the EGOFET is operated in the subthreshold regime. At concentrations greater than 1 nM the response scales linearly with the concentration. The sensitivity and the dynamic range are both modulated by the gate voltage. These results are explained by establishing the correlation between the sensitivity and the density of states (DOS) of the organic semiconductor. Then, the superexponential response arises from the energy-dependence of the tail of the DOS of the HOMO level. From the gate voltage-dependent response, we extract the binding constant, as well as the changes of the surface charge and the effective capacitance accompanying biorecognition at the electrode surface. Finally, we demonstrate the detection of TNF alpha in human-plasma derived samples as an example for point-of-care application.