Application of mass fabricated silicon-based gold transducers for amperometric biosensors

The backside contact, silicon-based transducers with vacuum-deposited gold layer (BSC) are evaluated as the base for electrochemical biosensors construction. Their comparison with commercially available transducers with screen printed gold and traditional gold disc electrode is reported. To determine the advantages and disadvantages of each of gold surfaces mentioned above, the 6-(ferrocenyl)-hexanethiol was used as the indicator. The results revealed the usefulness of BSC chips for the formation of stable self-assembled monolayers (SAMs). After the preliminary analysis, the SAM of thiol-ssDNA was formed on the BSC transducers as recognition layer. The electrochemical analysis in methylene blue solution was carried out after ssDNA immobilization and DNA–DNA hybridization. It is shown that prepared sensors are able to recognize complementary DNA sequence, based on the change in height and the potential shifts of reduction peaks of methylene blue. Obtained results are in full agreement with literature data. The compact size of silicone-based transducers allows to significantly reduce the required volume of tested solutions.