Antifouling Spiky Nanoelectrodes Enhance Detection of Bacterial mRNA

Abstract

Nanomaterials have extensive applications in the development of sensitive biosensors, but the influence of their specific structural properties remains unclear. This work presents a platform that can provide mechanistic insight into how nanostructured electrodes improve the performance of electrochemical biosensors. We designed nanoelectrodes with sub-10 nm spike features through a combination of top-down lithography and solution-based synthesis. These anisotropic structures facilitated rapid electron-transfer, minimized biofouling, and promoted efficient target capture. Using these spiky nanoelectrodes in a biosensor, we detected bacterial mRNA at aM-levels and within 3 min. Our findings reveal the mechanism underlying signal enhancement from high-curvature regions on nanostructured electrodes, highlighting the structure–property relationships of nanostructures in electrochemical sensing.