Alexander Pevzner

Supersensitive Detection of Explosives by Silicon Nanowire Arrays

There has been a great increase in the development of traceand ultra-trace explosive detection in the last decade, mainlybecause of the globalization of terrorist acts, and thereclamationofcontaminatedlandpreviouslyusedformilitarypurposes. In this regard, detection methods for traces ofexplosives continue to be hampered by the low volatility ofthe analytes and thus, the analytical problem remainschallenging.

Biorecognition Layer Engineering: Overcoming Screening Limitations of Nanowire-Based FET Devices

Detection of biological species is of great importance to numerous areas of medical and life sciences from the diagnosis of diseases to the discovery of new drugs. Essential to the detection mechanism is the transduction of a signal associated with the specific recognition of biomolecules of interest. Nanowire-based electrical devices have been demonstrated as a powerful sensing platform for the highly sensitive detection of a wide-range of biological and chemical species. Yet, detecting biomolecules in complex biosamples of high ionic strength (>100 mM) is severely hampered by ionic screening effects. As a consequence, most of existing nanowire sensors operate under low ionic strength conditions, requiring ex situ biosample manipulation steps, that is, desalting processes. Here, we demonstrate an effective approach for the direct detection of biomolecules in untreated serum, based on the fragmentation of antibody-capturing units. Size-reduced antibody fragments permit the biorecognition event to occur in closer proximity to the nanowire surface, falling within the charge-sensitive Debye screening length. Furthermore, we explored the effect of antibody surface coverage on the resulting detection sensitivity limit under the high ionic strength conditions tested and found that lower antibody surface densities, in contrary to high antibody surface coverage, leads to devices of greater sensitivities. Thus, the direct and sensitive detection of proteins in untreated serum and blood samples was effectively performed down to the sub-pM concentration range without the requirement of biosamples manipulation.

Si nanowires forest-based on-chip biomolecular filtering, separation and preconcentration devices: nanowires do it all.

The development of efficient biomolecular separation and purification techniques is of critical importance in modern genomics, proteomics, and biosensing areas, primarily due to the fact that most biosamples are mixtures of high diversity and complexity. Most of existent techniques lack the capability to rapidly and selectively separate and concentrate specific target proteins from a complex biosample, and are difficult to integrate with lab-on-a-chip sensing devices. Here, we demonstrate the development of an on-chip all-SiNW filtering, selective separation, desalting, and preconcentration platform for the direct analysis of whole blood and other complex biosamples. The separation of required protein analytes from raw biosamples is first performed using a antibody-modified roughness-controlled SiNWs (silicon nanowires) forest of ultralarge binding surface area, followed by the release of target proteins in a controlled liquid media, and their subsequent detection by supersensitive SiNW-based FETs arrays fabricated on the same chip platform. Importantly, this is the first demonstration of an all-NWs device for the whole direct analysis of blood samples on a single chip, able to selectively collect and separate specific low abundant proteins, while easily removing unwanted blood components (proteins, cells) and achieving desalting effects, without the requirement of time-consuming centrifugation steps, the use of desalting or affinity columns. Futhermore, we have demonstrated the use of our nanowire forest-based separation device, integrated in a single platform with downstream SiNW-based sensors arrays, for the real-time ultrasensitive detection of protein biomarkers directly from blood samples. The whole ultrasensitive protein label-free analysis process can be practically performed in less than 10 min.

Supersensitive fingerprinting of explosives by chemically modified nanosensors arrays

The capability to detect traces of explosives sensitively, selectively and rapidly could be of great benefit for applications relating to civilian national security and military needs. Here, we show that, when chemically modified in a multiplexed mode, nanoelectrical devices arrays enable the supersensitive discriminative detection of explosive species. The fingerprinting of explosives is achieved by pattern recognizing the inherent kinetics, and thermodynamics, of interaction between the chemically modified nanosensors array and the molecular analytes under test. This platform allows for the rapid detection of explosives, from air collected samples, down to the parts-per-quadrillion concentration range, and represents the first nanotechnology-inspired demonstration on the selective supersensitive detection of explosives, including the nitro- and peroxide-derivatives, on a single electronic platform. Furthermore, the ultrahigh sensitivity displayed by our platform may allow the remote detection of various explosives, a task unachieved by existing detection technologies.

Confinement-guided shaping of semiconductor nanowires and nanoribbons: "writing with nanowires".

To fully exploit their full potential, new semiconductor nanowire building blocks with ab initio controlled shapes are desired. However, and despite the great synthetic advances achieved, the ability to control nanowires geometry has been significantly limited. Here, we demonstrate a simple confinement-guided nanowire growth method that enables to predesign not only the chemical and physical attributes of the synthesized nanowires but also allows a perfect and unlimited control over their geometry. Our method allows the synthesis of semiconductor nanowires in a wide variety of two-dimensional shapes such as any kinked (different turning angles), sinusoidal, linear, and spiral shapes, so that practically any desired geometry can be defined. The shape-controlled nanowires can be grown on almost any substrate such as silicon wafer, quartz and glass slides, and even on plastic substrates (e.g., Kapton HN).

Non-covalent Monolayer-Piercing Anchoring of Lipophilic Nucleic Acids: Preparation, Characterization, and Sensing Applications

Functional interfaces of biomolecules and inorganic substrates like semiconductor materials are of utmost importance for the development of highly sensitive biosensors and microarray technology. However, there is still a lot of room for improving the techniques for immobilization of biomolecules, in particular nucleic acids and proteins. Conventional anchoring strategies rely on attaching biomacromolecules via complementary functional groups, appropriate bifunctional linker molecules, or non-covalent immobilization via electrostatic interactions. In this work, we demonstrate a facile, new, and general method for the reversible non-covalent attachment of amphiphilic DNA probes containing hydrophobic units attached to the nucleobases (lipid-DNA) onto SAM-modified gold electrodes, silicon semiconductor surfaces, and glass substrates. We show the anchoring of well-defined amounts of lipid-DNA onto the surface by insertion of their lipid tails into the hydrophobic monolayer structure. The surface coverage of DNA molecules can be conveniently controlled by modulating the initial concentration and incubation time. Further control over the DNA layer is afforded by the additional external stimulus of temperature. Heating the DNA-modified surfaces at temperatures >80 °C leads to the release of the lipid-DNA structures from the surface without harming the integrity of the hydrophobic SAMs. These supramolecular DNA layers can be further tuned by anchoring onto a mixed SAM containing hydrophobic molecules of different lengths, rather than a homogeneous SAM. Immobilization of lipid-DNA on such SAMs has revealed that the surface density of DNA probes is highly dependent on the composition of the surface layer and the structure of the lipid-DNA. The formation of the lipid-DNA sensing layers was monitored and characterized by numerous techniques including X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, quartz crystal microbalance, ellipsometry, contact angle measurements, atomic force microscopy, and confocal fluorescence imaging. Finally, this new DNA modification strategy was applied for the sensing of target DNAs using silicon-nanowire field-effect transistor device arrays, showing a high degree of specificity toward the complementary DNA target, as well as single-base mismatch selectivity.

Highly Ordered Large-Scale Neuronal Networks of Individual Cells – Toward Single Cell to 3D Nanowire Intracellular Interfaces

The use of artificial, prepatterned neuronal networks in vitro is a promising approach for studying the development and dynamics of small neural systems in order to understand the basic functionality of neurons and later on of the brain. The present work presents a high fidelity and robust procedure for controlling neuronal growth on substrates such as silicon wafers and glass, enabling us to obtain mature and durable neural networks of individual cells at designed geometries. It offers several advantages compared to other related techniques that have been reported in recent years mainly because of its high yield and reproducibility. The procedure is based on surface chemistry that allows the formation of functional, tailormade neural architectures with a micrometer high-resolution partition, that has the ability to promote or repel cells attachment. The main achievements of this work are deemed to be the creation of a large scale neuronal network at low density down to individual cells, that develop intact typical neurites and synapses without any glia-supportive cells straight from the plating stage and with a relatively long term survival rate, up to 4 weeks. An important application of this method is its use on 3D nanopillars and 3D nanowire-device arrays, enabling not only the cell bodies, but also their neurites to be positioned directly on electrical devices and grow with registration to the recording elements underneath.

Optically-gated self-calibrating nanosensors: monitoring pH and metabolic activity of living cells.

Quantitative detection of biological and chemical species is critical to numerous areas of medical and life sciences. In this context, information regarding pH is of central importance in multiple areas, from chemical analysis, through biomedical basic studies and medicine, to industry. Therefore, a continuous interest exists in developing new, rapid, miniature, biocompatible and highly sensitive pH sensors for minute fluid volumes. Here, we present a new paradigm in the development of optoelectrical sensing nanodevices with built-in self-calibrating capabilities. The proposed electrical devices, modified with a photoactive switchable molecular recognition layer, can be optically switched between two chemically different states, each having different chemical binding constants and as a consequence affecting the device surface potential at different extents, thus allowing the ratiometric internal calibration of the sensing event. At each point in time, the ratio of the electrical signals measured in the ground and excited states, respectively, allows for the absolute concentration measurement of the molecular species under interest, without the need for electrical calibration of individual devices. Furthermore, we applied these devices for the real-time monitoring of cellular metabolic activity, extra- and intracellularly, as a potential future tool for the performance of basic cell biology studies and high-throughput personalized medicine-oriented research, involving single cells and tissues. This new concept can be readily expanded to the sensing of additional chemical and biological species by the use of additional photoactive switchable receptors. Moreover, this newly demonstrated coupling between surface-confined photoactive molecular species and nanosensing devices could be utilized in the near future in the development of devices of higher complexity for both the simultaneous control and monitoring of chemical and biological processes with nanoscale resolution control.

Super-Resolution in Label-Free Photomodulated Reflectivity

We demonstrate a new, label-free, far-field super-resolution method based on an ultrafast pump-probe scheme oriented toward nanomaterial imaging. A focused pump laser excites a diffraction-limited spatial temperature profile, and the nonlinear changes in reflectance are probed. Enhanced spatial resolution is demonstrated with nanofabricated silicon and vanadium dioxide nanostructures. Using an air objective, resolution of 105 nm was achieved, well beyond the diffraction limit for the pump and probe beams and offering a novel kind of dedicated nanoscopy for materials.

Heteroepitaxial Si/ZnO Hierarchical Nanostructures for Future Optoelectronic Devices

The synthesis of highly-ordered ultra-dense heteroepitaxial Si/ZnO hierarchical nanostructures by a simple and cost-effective approach is demonstrated. We also show, based on the same approach, the synthesis of ZnO nanoparticle-decorated Si nanowire cores and Si/ZnO conformal core-shell hetero-nanostructures. The as-synthesized ZnO nanobranches on Si nanowire cores exhibit an epitaxial relationship as (111)Si/(100) ZnO. Excellent control over the composition, dimensions, and density of ZnO branches on Si cores has been achieved. Thus, in future, this family of well-controlled, high-quality Si/ZnO hierarchical hetero-nanostructures could play a role as multifunctional candidates in the fabrication of optoelectronic devices, particularly for the development of a new generation of solar-cell devices.