Polyethylene imine/graphene oxide layer-by-layer surface functionalization for significantly improved limit of detection and binding kinetics of immunoassays on acrylate surfaces

[Display omitted] •PMMA surface was modified for improved biomolecules immobilization.•Polyethylene imine and graphene oxide nanostructured film was assembled by LbL technique.•An increased surface hydrophilicity (81%) and roughness (600%) was achieved.•3x lower LOD than commercial 96-well PS plate was achieved.•Faster kinetics of adsorption decreases the incubation time from 2h to 15min. Antibody immobilization on polymeric substrates is a key manufacturing step for microfluidic devices that implement sample-to-answer automation of immunoassays. In this work, a simple and versatile method to bio-functionalize poly(methylmethacrylate) (PMMA), a common material of such “Lab-on-a-Chip” systems, is proposed; using the Layer-by-Layer (LbL) technique, we assemble nanostructured thin films of poly(ethylene imine) (PEI) and graphene oxide (GO). The wettability of PMMA surfaces was significantly augmented by the surface treatment with (PEI/GO)5 film, with an 81% reduction of the contact angle, while the surface roughness increased by 600%, thus clearly enhancing wettability and antibody binding capacity. When applied to enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs), the limit of detection of PMMA surface was notably improved from 340pgmL−1 on commercial grade polystyrene (PS) and 230pgmL−1 on plain PMMA surfaces to 130pgmL−1 on (PEI/GO)5 treated PMMA. Furthermore, the accelerated antibody adsorption kinetics on the LbL films of GO allowed to substantially shorten incubation times, e.g. for anti-rat IgG adsorption from 2h down to 15min on conventional and treated surfaces, respectively.