Polysaccharide templated silver nanowire for ultrasensitive electrical detection of nucleic acids

An ultrasensitive electrical detection method of nucleic acids has been developed on a nanogapped biosensor. In this study, peptide nucleic acid (PNA) probes were immobilized in the gaps of a pair of finger microelectrodes first and were then hybridized with their complementary target DNA. After that, pectin molecules were introduced into the DNA strand via zirconium-phosphate and zirconium-carbonate chemistries and were oxidated by periodate in acetate buffer (pH 3.98). The newly produced aldedyde groups act as a reactant to reduce ammoniacal silver ion to produce silver nanoparticles, which bridged the gap of the interdigitated microelectrode. The conductance of the metallic nanoparticles correlated directly with the amount of the hybridized DNA. A much higher sensitivity was achieved at 3 femtomolar (S/N > 3) under optimal conditions. This biosensor is also applicable to the direct detection of RNA.