Improving the Detection Limit of Potentiometric Sensors

描述（由申请人提供）：电位传感器的检测极限可以比传统上接受的水平提高3到6个数量级的发现已经彻底改变了离子感测领域。在这个延续的建议，将探索新的途径，更全面地评估这种传感器的限制，并设计新的传感概念的基础上，在离子选择性膜的离子通量。由于电位法作为一维技术，不受标度律的影响，因此将在有限的样品体积中探索电位传感器的极限。这些知识将用于设计基于金属纳米粒子探针的超灵敏DNA检测设备，这些探针将在氧化后进行电位检测。电位法将耦合到分析物富集过程中，类似于其伏安法的对应物，以进一步大幅降低检测限，这可能超过任何其他电化学方法。化学和恒电流诱导的离子选择性膜上的离子通量将用于设计比传统电位法灵敏10倍的测量装置，这对于电解质和药物监测非常有用。这种通量的扰动表面结合事件将被用来探索新的方法，在液体-聚合物界面的生物传感。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The discovery that the detection limit of potentiometric sensors may be improved by 3 to 6 orders of magnitude of traditionally accepted levels have drastically changed the field of ion sensing. In this continuation proposal, new avenues will be explored to more completely assess the limits of such sensors and to design novel sensing concepts based on ion fluxes at ion-selective membranes. Since potentiometry, as one-dimensional technique, is not subject to scaling laws, the limits of potentiometric sensors will be explored in confined sample volumes. This knowledge will be used to design ultra-sensitive DNA detection devices based on metal nanoparticle probes that would be potentiometrically detected after oxidation. Potentiometry will be coupled to analyte enrichment processes, in analogy to their voltammetric counterparts for a further drastic decrease in detection limit that may surpass that of any other electrochemical method. Ion fluxes at ion-selective membranes, induced chemically and galvanostatically, will be used to design 10-fold more sensitive measuring devices than in traditional potentiometry, which will be very useful for electrolyte and drug monitoring. The perturbance of such fluxes by surface binding events will be used to explore novel approaches to biosensing at liquid-polymer interfaces.