Superhydrophobicity-mediated enhanced enzymatic kinetics and high-performance bioassays

Abstract

As a typical superwettability behavior, superhydrophobicity can provide an appropriate strategy to enhance the mass transport in multiphase chemical reactions. In the oxidase-based enzymatic reactions, the elaborately regulating of reactant oxygen are critical to the development of an oxidase-based high-performance biosensor. In solid–liquid diphase condition, however, the kinetics of oxidase-catalyzed reactions is inhibited by delayed mass transport and poor solubility of oxygen. To address this limitation, the design of the solid–liquid–air triphase interface is proposed according to the binary cooperation of superhydrophobicity and hydrophilicity. On the triphase joint interface, oxygen required for the oxidase-catalyzed reactions can diffuse directly to the reaction center from the air phase through the micro/nanostructured superhydrophobic substrate, thus improving the kinetics of the oxidase-catalyzed reactions. In this minireview, we summarize recent advances in the fabrication of triphase reaction system based on different superhydrophobic substrate for oxidase-based biosensors. Common substrates including fibrous network, nanowire arrays, 3D porous framework, and hollow sphere structures are outlined in categories.