Electronic Circuit Inspired Optimization of Nanogap Electrochemical Biosensors

TL;DR

This paper introduces a circuit-inspired simulation method for optimizing nanogap electrochemical biosensors, revealing how electrode geometry influences detection sensitivity and response time, thus aiding design improvements.

Contribution

It presents a novel, accessible simulation approach based on electronic circuit analysis for electrode geometry optimization in electrochemical biosensors.

Findings

Electrode geometry significantly affects detection limits.

Nano-structured electrodes improve sensor performance.

The method can be applied to various electrochemical devices.

Abstract

Electrochemical biosensors and the related concept of redox detection at nanogap electrodes are increasingly explored for ultra-sensitive detection of biomolecules. While experimental demonstrations have been encouraging, the associated design and optimization of electrode geometry, beyond the simple one-dimensional architectures, is inherently challenging from multiple aspects related to numerical complexity. Here we develop a facile simulation scheme to address this challenge using well established electronic circuit analysis techniques that are available as open source-ware. Based on this approach, we show that electrode geometry, especially nano-structured redox electrodes on a planar surface, has interesting implications on the detection limits and settling time of electrochemical biosensors. The methodology we developed and the insights obtained could be useful for electrode optimization for a wide variety of problems ranging from biosensors to electrochemical storage.