Enhanced resonance light scattering based on biocatalytic growth of gold nanoparticles for biosensors design

The biocatalytic growth of gold nanoparticles (Au-NPs) has been employed in the design of new optical biosensors based on the enhanced resonance light scattering (RLS) signals. Both absorption spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analysis revealed Au-NP seeds could be effectively enlarged upon the reaction with H2O2, an important metabolite that could be generated by many biocatalytic reactions. Upon the stepwise enlargement of Au-NPs, the light scattering intensity could be greatly enhanced, which then allowed the quantitative detection of the analyte, H2O2. Further combination of the biocatalytic reaction that can yield H2O2 by using the enzyme, glucose oxidase, with the enlargement of Au-NPs enabled the design of a sensitive glucose biosensor using the RLS technique. In the present study, we could achieve the detection of glucose in a linear range of 1.0 × 10−6 M to 1.1 × 10−4 M, with detection limit of 6.8 × 10−7 M.