New Type of Graphene Sensor to Answer a Fundamental Nanotechnology Question

A team of physicists have invented a new type of graphene-based sensor that could one day be used as a low-cost diagnostic system able to test for biomarker molecules, which are indicative of disease states.

In collaboration with the Department of Chemistry, the researchers published a paper in Chemical Science in which they use this sensor, for the first time, to directly answer a basic scientific question in nanotechnology about whether a particular protein maintains its structure when it assembles around an inorganic nanoparticle. The finding may have medical applications down the line.

The research was led by Jinglei Ping, a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Physics & Astronomy, physics professor A.T. Charlie Johnson and Katherine Pulsipher, previously a grad student in the Department of Chemistry and now a postdoc in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering in the School of Engineering and Applied Science. Chemistry professors Ivan Dmochowski and Jeffery Saven, graduate students Ramya Vishnubhotla and Jose Villegas and alumnae Tacey Hicks and Stephanie Honig also contributed to the study.

This unique sensor, which the researchers call a graphene micro electrode, works by measuring the current that flows from a liquid sample to the graphene surface. The researchers found that this technique is especially useful in more complicated liquid samples, such as biological fluids, which typically have a lot of salt and proteins.

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