Polymer-Decorated Carbon Nanotubes as Transducers for Label-Free Photonic Biosensors

A biosensor taking advantage of the optical properties of sorted carbon nanotubes has been developed. A polyfluorene polymer bearing azido groups was synthesized and used for the selective extraction of semi‐conducting nanotubes from the bulk population. The resulting polymer‐decorated nanotubes were then conjugated by click‐chemistry to a ligand unit (biotin), and the sensing properties of the biotinylated nanotubes were investigated by photoluminescence measurements, upon interaction with the streptavidin target. Sensors working overtime: A biosensor exploiting the modulation of the optical properties of carbon nanotubes was developed and applied to the sensing of a model protein.