Graphene-Modified Nanoelectrode Sensors for In-Situ Sensing in Regenerative Medicine and Electro-Catalysis

该项目将采用一种基于超细纳米电极的新型纳米传感器技术，以实现生物和电催化系统中诊断性、小分子分析物的精确原位测量。目前的纳米电极传感技术存在着低信噪比的问题，这使得分析物浓度的微小变化无法被察觉。该项目将开发功能性的石墨烯纳米材料，将其整合到纳米电极传感器中，以显着提高其灵敏度。此外，将探索用双金属纳米颗粒和/或功能化聚合物对石墨烯修饰的纳米传感器进行化学改性，以提高选择性。该新型功能纳米传感器将首先用于牛胚胎的细胞内氧传感，这是生殖医学中一个重要的模型系统。有强有力的证据表明，监测胚胎的代谢活动，包括氧气消耗，将有助于临床医生在生殖治疗中选择“最佳”胚胎。由于其超细尺寸，我们的纳米电极传感器将允许在单个细胞水平上精确测量氧气，同时大大降低临界胚胎扰动的风险。同时，功能纳米电极也将被用于重要电化学反应体系中反应中间体的传感。用双金属（即电催化剂）纳米粒子修饰的纳米电极将作为敏感的电化学探针进行研究，例如用于单催化剂纳米粒子的基本电催化研究或电化学反应器中的原位探测。这些研究对于推进对电催化生成可再生能源载体（如氢和甲烷）的基本理解非常重要。该功能纳米传感器将集成到一个简单的电化学反应器系统中，并在电催化过程中进行原位传感测试，包括电催化CO2还原和析氢反应。

The project will adapt a novel nanosensor technology, based on ultrafine nanoelectrodes, to enable accurate in-situ measurement of diagnostic, small-molecule analytes in biological and electro-catalytic systems. As it stands, the current nanoelectrode sensing technology suffers from poor signal/noise ratio that makes small changes in analyte concentration unnoticeable. The project will develop functional, graphene nanomaterials that will be incorporated into the nanoelectrode sensors to dramatically improve their sensitivity. Further, chemical modification of the graphene-modified nanosensors with bimetallic nanoparticles and/or functionalised polymers will be explored to boost selectivity. The novel functional nanosensors will initially be assessed for intracellular oxygen sensing with in bovine embryos, an important model system in reproductive medicine. There is strong evidence that monitoring the metabolic activity of the embryo, including oxygen consumption, will help clinical practitioners to select the "best" embryos in reproductive therapy. Due to their ultrafine dimensions, our nanoelectrode sensors will allow accurate oxygen measurements on a single cellular level while substantially minimising the risk of critical embryo perturbance. In parallel, the functional nanoelectrodes will also be explored for the sensing of reactive intermediates in important electrochemical reaction systems. Nanoelectrodes modified with bi-metallic (i.e. electrocatalyst) nanoparticles will be investigated as sensitive electrochemical probes, e.g. for fundamental electrocatalytic studies of single catalyst nanoparticles or for in-situ probing in electro-chemical reactors. Such studies are highly important to advance fundamental understanding of electrocatalytic generation of renewable energy vectors, such as hydrogen and methane. The functional nanosensors will be integrated into a simple electrochemical reactor system and tested for in-situ sensing during electro-catalysis, including electrocatalytic CO2 reduction and hydrogen evolution reaction.