COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH: Biomimetic Entropic Patterning (BEP) of Nanobiosensors

这一合作研究项目涉及为食品和农业应用中的需要点测试开发传感器，这些传感器可以检测食品或水中受监管的杀虫剂和/或致病菌。正在开发使用计算机算法在表面产生材料图案的传感器。这一过程是可重复的，不需要使用昂贵的设备或进行大量培训，确保了该技术的广泛应用。该研究项目还通过一系列实践教学活动、本科暑期研究项目和社区非正式学习活动，鼓励来自代表性不足群体的学生进行研究和研究生院学习。此外，非专家受众还可以接触到基于移动电话的生物传感器的基本科学和技术，以及生物仿生学和分形数学的概念。最后，在本研究项目中开发的传感器平台具有许多潜在的应用，包括储能、生物医学设备和太阳能电池。这项研究的目标是开发一种用于生物传感的微/纳米结构图案化的新工艺。提出了一种新的仿生熵图案化技术，以提高信号转导和耐久性，特别是在具有挑战性的野外条件下。这个假设是，纳米材料的二维图案化导致了与信号转导相关的熵的最优化。这一优化提高了阻抗和表面等离子体共振生物传感器的耐用性、灵敏度、检测极限和准确性。这一假设是在研究人员的基础上提出的？初步探索性地分析了30多种电化学传感模式，包括无标度模式和非无标度模式。首次通过测试包含各种图案化纳米材料的电化学和等离子体传感器，建立了图案化纳米材料的熵与信号转导之间的关联。图案的熵通过硅内二维模型进行调节，并使用激光划线或纳米光刻等技术在传感器表面上图案纳米材料。这一研究项目将创建一个多用途传感器平台，利用基于移动电话的采集系统进行需求点检测，并在生态系统健康和食品安全生物传感领域得到应用。为了证明图案化原理的广泛适用性，使用了多种制造技术(激光刻画石墨烯、喷墨打印、纳米压印光刻)，该协议将由多个具有不同技能和设备的传感器实验室通过正式的二次验证过程进行测试。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This collaborative research project involves developing sensors for point-of-need testing in food and agricultural applications that can detect regulated pesticides and/or pathogenic bacteria in food or water. Sensors are being developed using computer algorithms to generate patterns of materials on surfaces. The process is reproducible and does not require the use of expensive equipment or significant training, ensuring the widespread availability of the technique. The research project also encourages students from underrepresented groups to pursue research and graduate school via a series of hands-on teaching activities, undergraduate summer research projects, and informal learning activities in the community. In addition, non-expert audiences are exposed to the underlying science and technology of mobile phone-based biosensors as well as the concepts of biomimicry and fractal mathematics. Finally, the sensor platform developed during this research project has many potential applications, including energy storage, biomedical devices, and solar cells. The goal of this research is to develop a new process for patterning micro/nanostructures in biosensing. A new biomimetic entropic patterning technique is proposed to improve signal transduction and durability, particularly under challenging field conditions. The hypothesis is that two-dimensional patterning of nanomaterials leads to optimization of entropy associated with signal transduction. This optimization improves durability, sensitivity, limit of detection, and accuracy of impedimetric and surface plasmon resonance biosensors. The hypothesis has been developed based on the researchers? preliminary exploratory analysis of over 30 patterns for electrochemical sensing, including scale free and non scale-free patterns. For the first time, a correlation between the entropy of patterned nanomaterials and signal transduction is established by testing electrochemical and plasmonic sensors that contain various patterned nanomaterials. The entropy of the pattern is tuned by an in silico two-dimensional model, and techniques such as laser scribing or nanolithography are used to pattern nanomaterials on the sensor surface. This research project will create a multipurpose sensor platform for point of need sensing using mobile phone-based acquisition systems with applications in the areas of ecosystem health and food safety biosensing. To demonstrate the broad applicability of the patterning principle, multiple fabrication techniques are used (laser inscribed graphene, inkjet printing, nanoimprint lithography), and the protocol will be tested by multiple sensor labs with varying skills and equipment through a formal secondary validation process.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.