Field-Effect Capacitors Decorated with Ligand-Stabilized Gold Nanoparticles: Modeling and Experiments

Biosensors, vol. 12, pp. 334

Abstract

Nanoparticles are recognized as highly attractive tunable materials for designing field-effect biosensors with enhanced performance. In this work, we present a theoretical model for electrolyte-insulator-semiconductor capacitors (EISCAP) decorated with ligand-stabilized charged gold nanoparticles. The charged AuNPs are taken into account as additional, nanometer-sized local gates. The capacitance-voltage (C–V) curves and constant-capacitance (ConCap) signals of the AuNP-decorated EISCAPs have been simulated. The impact of the AuNP coverage on the shift of the C–V curves and the ConCap signals was also studied experimentally on Al–p-Si–SiO2 EISCAPs decorated with positively charged aminooctanethiol-capped AuNPs. In addition, the surface of the EISCAPs, modified with AuNPs, was characterized by scanning electron microscopy for different immobilization times of the nanoparticles.

Authors 4

1. Arshak Poghossian corresponding
   Affiliation as printed

   MicroNanoBio, 40479 Düsseldorf, Germany

2. Tobias Karschuck Aachen Institute of Nano- and Biotechnologies (INB)

   FH Aachen

   Affiliation as printed

   Institute of Nano- and Biotechnologies, FH Aachen, 52428 Jülich, Germany

3. Patrick Hermann Wagner

   KU Leuven

   Affiliation as printed

   Laboratory for Soft Matter and Biophysics, KU Leuven, 3000 Leuven, Belgium

4. Michael Josef Schöning corresponding Aachen Institute of Nano- and Biotechnologies (INB)

   FH Aachen · Forschungszentrum Jülich

   Affiliation as printed

   Institute of Biological Information Processing (IBI-3), Forschungszentrum Jülich, 52425 Juelich, Germany

   Institute of Nano- and Biotechnologies, FH Aachen, 52428 Jülich, Germany