SiM20 Posters

Sensors in Medicine 2020 28 3D Nanocomposite Bio-Responsive Hydrogels for Multiplexed Sensing Bruno Miranda 1,2 , Selene De Martino 3 , Rosalba Moretta 1 , Principia Dardano 1 , Ilaria Rea 1 , Carlo Forestiere 2 , Luca De Stefano 1 1. Institute of Applied Sciences and Intelligent Systems - National Research Council | Via P. Castellino 111 | 80131 | Naples | Italy 2. Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology, University of Naples Federico II | via Claudio 21 | 80125 | Naples | Italy 3. Materias s.r.l. | Via P. Castellino 111 | 80131 | Naples | Italy Abstract Localized Surface Plasmon Resonance (LSPR) and Metal-Enhanced Fluorescence (MEF)-based optical biosensors provide unique advantages compared to other sensing technologies to design point-of-care (POC) diagnostic tools [1]. These devices exploit the capability of noble-metal nanoparticles of absorbing light at a well-defined wavelength. An optical platform based on spherical gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) and gold nanostars (AuNSs) embedded in poly-(ethylene glycol) diacrylate (PEGDA) hydrogels with varying molecular weights is proposed. As a hydrogel, PEGDA represents a biocompatible, flexible, transparent polymeric network to design wearable, 3D, plasmonic biosensors for the detection of targets with different molecular weights for the early diagnosis of disease [2]. Working Principles Localized Surface Plasmon Resonance Localized surface plasmons are non-propagating electron plasma excitations, located in metallic nanostructures, whose absorbance spectra resonate at a specific wavelength that depends on the size and on the shape of the metal nanoparticle. When an analyte is immobilized on the surface of the nanoparticles a resonance red-shift proportional to the concentration is measured. Metal-Enhanced Fluorescence Plasmonic nanoparticles act as optical antennas when combined with fluorescent dyes. When the absorbance of the nanoparticles overlaps with the fluorescence excitation/emission spectra, there is an enhancement of the fluorescent intensity that can be exploited to reach low limit of detection (LOD) and high sensitivities to the target molecules.