Fabrication and testing of a photonic ethanol biosensor

Abstract

This paper introduces an optical based ethanol biosensor fabricated on polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). The sensor consists of a detection chamber that includes fluid distribution channels, and micro-lenses with self-alignment structures for fiber optics positioning. The sensor design allows optical detection of ethanol concentrations based on co immobilization of alcohol oxidase (AOX) and horseradish peroxidase (HRP) directly on PDMS under continuous flow conditions. For that, an immobilization processe based on surface hydrophilization, salinization and enzymes co-immobilization was considered and tested. Experimental results showed that the sensor is able to detect ethanol concentrations up to 15 mM with a standard deviation of 0.97. Such results are very promising for the application in optical LOC systems used for online analysis.