Microscale, Electrochemical, Aptamer-Based Sensors for Enhanced Small Molecule Detection at Millisecond Timescales

Microscale electrodes offer the advantage of increased mass transport rates, high sensitivity, and rapid measurement capabilities. Fabricating electrochemical aptamer-based (E-AB) sensors on these electrode platforms open new applications to chemical and biological sensing but has remained challenging due to low signal-to-noise ratios and monolayer instability. In this paper, we report the development and characterization of E-AB sensors on a gold microelectrode platform (~500 nm radius). To overcome the small current response, we modified the electrodes by growing nanostructures via electrodeposition. We interrogated the sensors with two different electroanalytical techniques - square wave voltammetry (SWV) and intermittent pulse voltammetry (IPA) - to measure the representative response of an ATP sensor and determine aptamer-target binding and dissociation timescales. We find robust and stable sensor performance with an increased response rate over sensors fabricated on macroscale electrodes. These results demonstrate that sensors developed on this microelectrode platform can be employed for enhanced spatiotemporal resolution measurements in chemical and biological environments.