Surface Plasmon Resonance Biosensor Based on Smart Phone Platforms

Sci Rep. 2015 Aug 10:5:12864. doi: 10.1038/srep12864.

Abstract

We demonstrate a fiber optic surface plasmon resonance (SPR) biosensor based on smart phone platforms. The light-weight optical components and sensing element are connected by optical fibers on a phone case. This SPR adaptor can be conveniently installed or removed from smart phones. The measurement, control and reference channels are illuminated by the light entering the lead-in fibers from the phone's LED flash, while the light from the end faces of the lead-out fibers is detected by the phone's camera. The SPR-sensing element is fabricated by a light-guiding silica capillary that is stripped off its cladding and coated with 50-nm gold film. Utilizing a smart application to extract the light intensity information from the camera images, the light intensities of each channel are recorded every 0.5 s with refractive index (RI) changes. The performance of the smart phone-based SPR platform for accurate and repeatable measurements was evaluated by detecting different concentrations of antibody binding to a functionalized sensing element, and the experiment results were validated through contrast experiments with a commercial SPR instrument. This cost-effective and portable SPR biosensor based on smart phones has many applications, such as medicine, health and environmental monitoring.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Biosensing Techniques / instrumentation
  • Biosensing Techniques / methods*
  • Fiber Optic Technology
  • Gold / chemistry
  • Light
  • Refractometry
  • Smartphone
  • Surface Plasmon Resonance

Substances

  • Gold