Self-Enhanced Ultrasensitive Photoelectrochemical Biosensor Based on Nanocapsule Packaging Both Donor-Acceptor-Type Photoactive Material and Its Sensitizer.

In this work, a self-enhanced ultrasensitive photoelectrochemical (PEC) biosensor was established based on a functionalized nanocapsule packaging both donor-acceptor-type photoactive material and its sensitizer. The functionalized nanocapsule with self-enhanced PEC responses was achieved first by packaging both the donor-acceptor-type photoactive material (poly{4,8-bis[5-(2-ethylhexyl)thiophen-2-yl]benzo[1,2-b:4,5-b']dithiophene-2,6-diyl-alt-3-fluoro-2-[(2-ethylhexyl)carbonyl]thieno[3,4-b]thiophene-4,6-diyl}, PTB7-Th) and its sensitizer (nano-C60, fullerene) in poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) to form a nanocapsule, which significantly enhanced PEC signal and stability of the PEC biosensor. Moreover, a quadratic enzymes-assisted target recycling amplification strategy was introduced to the system for ultrasensitive determination. Compared with other established PEC biosensors, our proposed self-enhanced approach showed higher effectivity, accuracy, sensitivity, and convenience without any addition of coreactant or sensitizers into the testing electrolyte for photocurrent amplification and performed excellent analytical properties for microRNA estimation down to femtomole level with microRNA-141 as a model. Additionally, the proposed PEC biosensor was employed for estimation of microRNA in different cancer cells and pharmacodynamic evaluation in cancer cells. This self-enhanced PEC strategy has laid the foundation for fabrication of simple, effective, and ultrasensitive PEC diagnostic devices, leading to the possibility for early diagnosis, timely stage estimation, and accurate prognosis judgment of disease.