Impact of Interdigital Electrode Count on Non-Faradaic Electrochemical Biosensor Performance for Detecting Pathogens Associated with Newborn Disabilities
Human cytomegalovirus can cause severe disabilities in newborns, including deafness, blindness, and developmental issues. Current detection methods are expensive, time-consuming, and require specialized training. Non-faradaic impedimetric biosensors offer a rapid, low-cost alternative by detecting pathogens directly without redox probes or three-electrode setups. This study investigates how the number of gold interdigitated electrodes (IDEs) on a polymeric substrate affects biosensor performance against UL83-antigens of human cytomegalovirus. Specifically, three sets of IDEs were tested: 8, 16, and 32 electrodes. First, the effect of the interdigital electrodes number on the impedimetric parameters of bare electrodes was investigated. Then the electrodes were biofunctionalized with UL83-antibodies to detect varying UL83-antigen concentrations. Following biofunctionalization, biosensing results show that increasing the number of electrodes enhances sensitivity (4.77 to 7.86 nF/ln(ng ml−1)) and lowers the detection limit (600 to 1.1 ng ml−1). This improvement is attributed to the increased surface area and stronger electric field with higher electrode counts. Additionally, biosensor selectivity and stability in detecting UL83 antigens were evaluated. Consequently, the biosensors demonstrated excellent selectivity and showed only slight performance decreases when tested over 3 days, and 1, 2, and 4 week periods. This study provides new insights into optimizing non-faradaic impedimetric biosensors for direct, redox-free pathogen detection.
Wearable sensors have recently become essential tools in both preventive and corrective healthcare. Fused deposition modeling (FDM) is one of the rapidly evolving 3D-printing fields with…
Laboratory safety is a critical component of biomedical engineering (BME) education due to the interdisciplinary nature
of the field and the associated chemical and electrical hazards. Despite…
Human cytomegalovirus can cause severe disabilities in newborns, including deafness, blindness, and developmental issues. Current detection methods are expensive, time-consuming, and require…