A novel method for label-free detection of ricin using liquid crystals supported on chemically functionalized surfaces

In this paper, we report a simple and novel liquid-crystal based sensor for ricin detection. The method relies on the use of liquid crystals (LCs) 5CB to amplify and report the presence of ricin captured by an affinity ligand. A merit of this approach is that the ricin can be imaged on the chemically functionalized surfaces and transduced into optical signal by using LCs, the optical signal caused by the orientational transition of the LCs could be easily identified with polarized light microscopy. In addition, the sensor exhibited high sensitivity with strong selectivity, experimental results showed that the minimum detection concentration was as low as 10 μg/mL, demonstrating the feasibility of using these devices to detect and positively identify ricin. Furthermore, the success of LC-based sensor reported here does not use complex instrumentations and does not involve any labeling steps.