Schematic representation of the in-liquid Scanning Dielectric Microscopy set-up used to measure the local electric properties of an electrolyte gated organic field effect transistor (EGOFET) under operation.
Electronic biosensors based on organic materials could make soon a reality the dream of low-cost, disposable, flexible and biocompatible electronic devices for the interaction with biological systems. Now a research team from Barcelona has mapped the electrical properties of organic biosensor/electrolyte interfaces at the nanoscale by measuring local electric forces.
To achieve it, a microscopy technique developed some years ago in the Nanoscale Bioelectrical Characterization group at Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC), lead by Department of Electronic and Biomedical Engineering Professor.Gabriel Gomila has been key. This technique, referred to as in-liquid Scanning Dielectric Microscopy, can probe the electrical properties of solid/electrolyte interfaces by measuring the electric force between a very sharp tip mounted on a microscopic cantilever and the biosensor surface.
This study, by visualizing electrical properties of biosensor interfaces that until now had remained invisible, offers novel avenues for the optimization of the performance of the organic biosensor devices and paves the way for its faster adoption in applications in the medical real.
