Highly sensitive and selective sugar detection by terahertz nano-antennas.
Highly sensitive and selective sugar detection by terahertz nano-antennas.
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DOI：
10.1038/srep15459
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发表时间：
2015-10-23
影响因子：
4.6
通讯作者：
Seo M
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Lee DK;Kang JH;Lee JS;Kim HS;Kim C;Kim JH;Lee T;Son JH;Park QH;Seo M
碳水化合物的分子识别和区分是重要的，因为碳水化合物在大多数生物体中对于能量代谢和细胞间通讯起着重要作用。然而，由于在物理或化学特征上缺乏显著区别，很难识别或区分各种碳水化合物分子。尽管已经做出了相当大的努力来开发选择性地使用化学受体或系综阵列的单个碳水化合物的传感平台，但是它们的检测和辨别极限在毫摩尔浓度范围内一样高。在这里，我们展示了一种高灵敏度和选择性的检测方法，用于使用基于纳米缝隙天线阵列的传感芯片来区分碳水化合物分子，该传感芯片在太赫兹（THz）频率范围（0.5-2.5 THz）内工作。这种THz超材料传感工具可以识别各种类型的碳水化合物分子，分子浓度范围很广。通过纳米天线的强局部化和增强的太赫兹传输可以有效地增加分子吸收截面，从而即使在低浓度下也能够检测这些分子。通过太赫兹光谱和透射率图像验证了纳米天线传感芯片的性能。各种碳水化合物的筛选和鉴定可以应用于测试甚至具有高灵敏度和选择性的真实的市场饮料。
Molecular recognition and discrimination of carbohydrates are important because carbohydrates perform essential roles in most living organisms for energy metabolism and cell-to-cell communication. Nevertheless, it is difficult to identify or distinguish various carbohydrate molecules owing to the lack of a significant distinction in the physical or chemical characteristics. Although there has been considerable effort to develop a sensing platform for individual carbohydrates selectively using chemical receptors or an ensemble array, their detection and discrimination limits have been as high in the millimolar concentration range. Here we show a highly sensitive and selective detection method for the discrimination of carbohydrate molecules using nano-slot-antenna array-based sensing chips which operate in the terahertz (THz) frequency range (0.5–2.5 THz). This THz metamaterial sensing tool recognizes various types of carbohydrate molecules over a wide range of molecular concentrations. Strongly localized and enhanced terahertz transmission by nano-antennas can effectively increase the molecular absorption cross sections, thereby enabling the detection of these molecules even at low concentrations. We verified the performance of nano-antenna sensing chip by both THz spectra and images of transmittance. Screening and identification of various carbohydrates can be applied to test even real market beverages with a high sensitivity and selectivity.