Carbon nanotube electrodes for electrochemiluminescence biosensors

Abstract

The present application is based on the use of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) for biomolecular analysis using electrochemiluminescence (ECL) detection technique [1]–[9]. For this purpose we have grown self standing blocks of multi-wall CNTs (MWCNTs). The blocks were subsequently back-contacted and encapsulated into epoxy resin for their use as voltammetric electrodes. A ruthenium-complex solution has been used as ECL label. It has been observed a periodical light emission that lasts for hundreds of cycles, likely due to the CNTs structure. Thanks to a dataprocessing algorithm which exploits this behaviour, the experiments show that it is possible to obtain a great increase in detection limit.