Abstract
Nanosensors based on flexible polymers have emerged as powerful tools for next generation smart devices in the recent years. Here, we report a facile protocol to fabricate an immunosensor supported by a thermally resistant flexible polymer substrate (polyarylene ether nitrile, PEN). The immunosensor is a localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) optical sensor for in-vitro protein detection based on anti-body coated gold-silver bimetallic nanoparticles (Au-Ag NPs) immobilized on a PEN substrate. Plasmonic spectroscopy and morphological characterization show that the Au-Ag NPs essentially exhibit a more uniform size distribution and higher quality factors than those from single-component Au NPs. Furthermore, it should be noted that the robust PEN substrate in this nanosensor acts a flexible substrate to support Au-Ag NPs and immobilize the nanoparticles via quick thermal annealing at 290 °C. Thanks to these merits, a prostate-specific antigen (PSA) concentration as low as 1 ng/mL can be specifically discriminated via the prepared PEN/Au-Au NPs, which confirms that the protocol reported in this work can be readily adapted for the construction of various flexible immunosensors for different applications.