Increased detection of human cardiac troponin I by a decrease of nonspecific adsorption in diluted self-assembled monolayers

► Self-assembled monolayer-based sandwich immunoassay for cardiac troponin I (cTnI). ► Fundamental study of specific and non-specific binding at functionalized gold surface. ► Diluted mixed monolayer suppresses non-specific binding. ► Nature of the diluting (non-binding) molecule controls non-specific binding. ► cTnI detection limit of 10 ng/ml achieved without enzymatic amplification.