Aluminum Based Nanosensors for Ultrasensitive Bio-Detection

Abstract

A 3-dimensional, biocompatible Aluminum based nanomaterial with tunable morphological properties is fabricated using Femtosecond Pulsed Laser system. The novel material synthesized is characterized to define its physical and optical properties owing to its purpose in the desired field. Two unique shapes of Aluminum nanostructures, multifaceted and spherical, are defined and tested for Raman activity in SERS based applications. The nanoprobes are analysed in the field of chemical sensing using Crystal Violet and Rhodamine 6G and bio-sensing using cysteine and carcinoembryonic antigen. The nanoprobes possess the ability of SERS excitation up to single molecule sensing. The research is extended to in-vitro cancer diagnosis by its ability to sense the intracellular biomarkers produced by the cancer cells. Three cell lines are evaluated, mammalian fibroblast and pancreatic and lung cancer cells, for which further analysis is performed to prove the viability of the nanoprobes to differentiate between cancerous and non-cancerous cells by implementing ratio analysis on the obtained SERS spectrum