Modular Fabrication of Microfluidic Graphene FET for Nucleic Acids Biosensing

Abstract

Abstract Graphene field‐effect transistors (GFETs) are widely used in biosensing due to their excellent properties in biomolecular signal amplification, exhibiting great potential for high‐sensitivity and point‐of‐care testing in clinical diagnosis. However, difficulties in complicated fabrication steps are the main limitations for the further studies and applications of GFETs. In this study, a modular fabrication technique is introduced to construct microfluidic GFET biosensors within 3 independent steps. The low‐melting metal electrodes and intricate flow channels are incorporated to maintain the structural integrity of graphene and facilitate subsequent sensing operations. The as‐fabricated GFET biosensor demonstrates excellent long‐term stability, and performs effectively in various ion environments. It also exhibits high sensitivity and selectivity for detecting single‐stranded nucleic acids at a 10 fm concentration. Furthermore, when combined with the CRISPR/Cas12a system, it facilitates amplification‐free and rapid detection of nucleic acids at a concentration of 1 fm. Thus, it is believed that this modular‐fabricated microfluidic GFET may shed light on further development of FET‐based biosensors in various applications.

Keywords

• biosensor
• CRISPR/Cas12a
• graphene field‐effect transistor
• microfluidic
• modular fabrication