Development of a simplified approach for the fabrication of localised surface plasmon resonance sensors based on gold nanorods functionalized using mixed polyethylene glycol layers

•A simplified approach for the fabrication of localised surface plasmon resonance sensors based on gold nanorods is proposed.•Mixed polyethylene glycol adlayers were optimized in regards to the bioconjugation of monoclonal antibodies.•Antibody functionalized GNRs can be readily immobilized onto silanized glass to yield highly sensitive LSPR sensors.

A simplified approach for the fabrication of localised surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) sensors based on gold nanorods (GNRs) is described and validated in a model immunoassay for the activated leukocyte cell adhesion molecule (ALCAM) cancer biomarker. Towards improving on standard bottom-up LSPR sensor fabrication methodologies, we demonstrate that GNRs bioconjugated with monoclonal antibodies can be readily covalently immobilized onto silanized glass substrates to yield highly sensitive LSPR sensors. To maximise the performance of the proposed sensors, mixed polyethylene glycol adlayers were optimized in regards to the bioconjugation of monoclonal antibodies using the standard carbodiimide chemistry. In the optimal condition, the ALCAM GNR LSPR sensors yielded a sensitivity of 330 nm per refractive index and allowed the detection of the ALCAM antigen concentration down to 15 pM. This simple fabrication method could foster the implementation of LSPR sensors in the immunoassay field.

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