SBIR Phase I: Functionalized Graphene-Based Biosensors

这项小企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目旨在开发基于功能化石墨烯片（FGS）的电化学生物传感器平台专用材料配方。虽然碳基电极已广泛应用于电化学传感器中，但由于其电子传递速率小，导致电化学活性较差，而且现有的商用电化学传感平台在反应性和综合性能方面差异很大。近年来，石墨烯作为一种具有高灵敏度和特异性的电化学生物传感器的替代材料出现在人们的视野中。在拟议的项目中，FGS材料配方将用于检测特定的生物相关分析物。该项目将研究石墨烯化学对电化学活性的影响，并利用石墨烯片的特定生物活性修饰来优化电化学性能，并允许生物传感器的有效设计和最佳工作性能。所提出的技术预计将表现出突出的有益特性的组合，如高电活性，良好的生物相容性，以及在许多不同的传感任务中的多功能性。该项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是生物传感器的可用性，它提高了现有葡萄糖生物传感器的性能，并为当前碳材料无法提供所需性能的其他分析物分析的新传感器产品线打开了机会。全球生物传感器市场预计在未来几年内将增长11.5%，到2016年将达到140亿美元，其中家庭诊断和护理点生物传感器市场分别占总市场份额的28亿美元和63亿美元。葡萄糖生物传感器占世界生物传感器市场收入的30- 35%，用于其他分析检测的生物传感器，如胆固醇、蛋白质等，预计也将迅速扩大，预测增长率为19%。如果成功，新的石墨烯基生物传感器技术的预期电化学活性有望使其成为提高当前碳基生物传感器灵敏度和性能的引人注目的选择。此外，该项目的科学和工程方面，特别是关于石墨烯和功能化石墨烯的电活性，将引起科学界的广泛兴趣，并提高对石墨烯基电化学系统的普遍理解。

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project aims to develop specialized materials formulations based on functionalized graphene sheets (FGS) for electrochemical biosensor platforms. While carbon-based electrodes have been applied in a wide range of electrochemical sensor applications, electron transfer rates are small, leading to rather poor electrochemical activity, and existing commercially available electrochemical sensing platforms vary greatly in reactivity and general performance. Graphene has emerged in recent years as a promising alternative material for the development of electrochemical biosensors with high sensitivity and specificity. In the proposed program FGS materials formulations will be developed for detecting specific biologically relevant analytes. This project will examine the effect of graphene chemistry on electrochemical activity and utilizing specific bio-active decoration of the graphene sheets to optimize electrochemical properties and allow for the efficient design and optimal working performance of the biosensor. The proposed technology is anticipated to exhibit a combination of outstanding beneficial properties, such as high electroactivity, good biocompatibility, and versatility in many different sensing tasks. The broader impact/commercial potential of this project is the availability of a biosensor that improves the performance of existing glucose biosensors and opens opportunities for new sensor product lines for other analyte assays where the current carbon materials cannot provide the needed performance. The global biosensor market forecasted to grow by 11.5 % over the next several years, reaching $14 billion by 2016, with home diagnostics and point of care biosensor markets comprising $2.8 billion and $6.3 billion respectively of the total market share. Glucose biosensors account for 30-35 % of the world biosensor market revenues, and biosensors for other analyst detection such as cholesterol, proteins, etc, are also predicted to rapidly expand, with forecasted growth of 19 %. If successful, the anticipated electrochemical activity of the new graphene-based biosensor technology is expected to make it a compelling choice to improve sensitivity and performance of current carbon-based biosensors. Furthermore, the science and engineering aspects of this project especially with regards to electroactivity of graphene and functionalized graphene will be of broad interest within the scientific community and improve the general understanding of graphene-based electrochemical systems.