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提高3到6个数量级，这一发现极大地改变了离子传感领域。在这项继续提案中，将探索新的途径，以更全面地评估这种传感器的限度，并根据离子选择膜上的离子通量设计新的传感概念。由于作为一维技术的电位法不受标度定律的限制，电位法传感器的极限将在有限的样本量中进行探索。这些知识将被用来设计基于金属纳米颗粒探针的超灵敏DNA检测设备，这些探针将在氧化后进行电位检测。电位法将与分析物的浓缩过程相结合，类似于伏安法，从而进一步大幅降低检测下限，可能会超过任何其他电化学方法。离子选择膜上的离子通量将被用来设计比传统电位法灵敏度高10倍的测量装置，这将对电解液和药物的监测非常有用。表面结合事件对这种通量的扰动将被用来探索在液体-聚合物界面进行生物传感的新方法。

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.