Highly sensitive detection of DNA hybridization on commercialized graphene-coated surface plasmon resonance interfaces.

Strategies employed to interface biomolecules with nanomaterials have considerably advanced in recent years and found practical applications in many different research fields. The construction of nucleic acid modified interfaces together with the label-free detection of hybridization events has been one of the major research focuses in science and technology. In this paper, we demonstrate the high interest of graphene-on-metal surface plasmon resonance (SPR) interfaces for the detection of DNA hybridization events in the attomolar concentration range. The strategy consists on the noncovalent functionalization of graphene-coated SPR interfaces with gold nanostars carrying single-stranded DNA (ssDNA). Upon hybridization with its complementary DNA, desorption of the nanostructures takes place and thus enables the sensitive detection of the DNA hybridization event. The DNA sensor exhibits a detection limit of ≈500 aM for complementary DNA with a linear dynamic range up to 10(-8) M. This label-free DNA detection platform should spur off new interest toward the use of commercially available graphene-coated SPR interfaces.