TY - GEN A1 - Beisembek, Alisher A1 - Dimchevska Sazdovska, Simona A1 - Mirsky, Vladimir M. T1 - Separation of shifts in surface plasmon resonance into refractive index and thickness of deposited layers T2 - Sensors and actuators. B, Chemical N2 - Routine Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) measurements, which are widely applied in affinity (bio)sensors and surface science, do not allow one to separate the obtained SPR signals into the change of the refractive index and thickness of deposited layers. For thin layers the signal is proportional to the product of the layer thickness and the difference in the refractive indices of this layer and of the aqueous media. In this study, we suggest an approach to separate these parameters. It is performed by subsequent measurements in the presence and in the absence of polyethylene glycol (PEG), an inert additive which modifies the refractive index of the liquid phase but do not penetrate into the adsorbed layer. Both parameters were successively determined for human serum albumin (HSA) as well as for anti-HSA IgG in three different settings: i) HSA adsorbed directly onto a gold surface, ii) HSA chemically immobilized on a gold surface coated with a self-assembled monolayer of 1,16 mercaptohexadecanoic acid and iii) chemically immobilized HSA with additional monomolecular layer of anti- HSA IgG antibodies bond to this protein layer. The suggested approach can be applied in most SPR devices with a flow cell for analysis of various adsorbed layers. KW - Surface plasmon resonance KW - Thin layer thickness KW - Refractive index measurement Y1 - 2023 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.snb.2023.134606 SN - 1873-3077 SN - 0925-4005 VL - 396 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Efremenko, Yulia A1 - Mirsky, Vladimir M. T1 - 3-Thienylboronic Acid as a Receptor for Diol-Containing Compounds: A Study by Isothermal Titration Calorimetry T2 - Chemosensors N2 - The electrochemical activity of 3-thienylboronic acid and its feature to form polymer films makes it a perspective receptor material for sensor applications. The affinity properties of this compound were studied here by isothermal titration calorimetry. A number of different analytes were tested, and the highest binding enthalpy was observed for sorbitol and fructose. An increase of pH in the range of 5.5–10.6 results in the rise of the binding enthalpy with an increase of the binding constant to ~8400 L/mol for sorbitol or ~3400 L/mol for fructose. The dependence of the binding constant on pH has an inflection point at pH 7.6 with a slope that is a ten-fold binding constant per one pH unit. The binding properties of 3-thienylboronic acid were evaluated to be very close to that of the phenylboronic acid, but the electrochemical activity of 3-thienylboronic acid provides a possibility of external electrical control: dependence of the affinity of 3-thienylboronic acid on its redox state defined by the presence of ferro/ferricyanide in different ratios was demonstrated. The results show that 3-thienylboronic acid can be applied in smart chemical sensors with electrochemically controllable receptor affinity. KW - chemical sensors KW - affinity KW - isothermal titration calorimetry KW - 3-thienylboronic acid KW - diol-containing compounds Y1 - 2022 UR - https://www.mdpi.com/2227-9040/10/7/251 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3390/chemosensors10070251 SN - 2227-9040 VL - 10 IS - 7 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Nizamov, Shavkat A1 - Dimchevska Sazdovska, Simona A1 - Mirsky, Vladimir M. T1 - A review of optical methods for ultrasensitive detection and characterization of nanoparticles in liquid media with a focus on the wide field surface plasmon microscopy T2 - Analytica Chimica Acta N2 - Development of nanotechnology and corresponding industries during the last decade resulted in a new challenge for analytical science. This includes an ultrasensitive detection and characterization of nanoparticles of different origin and other nanomaterials in various media, including so complex ones as food, biological or environmental samples. The goal of this review is a systematic analysis of possible approaches and description of physical principles behind these methods. The main attention is paid to optical methods which are considered by authors to be mostly effective for the formulated task. Different approaches for detection and analysis of nanoparticles in a volume as well as of those adsorbed on a surface are discussed. While the technologies based on direct analysis of nanoparticle suspensions belong to the established approaches whose development potential has been in large extent exhausted, the novel technologies based on the surface sensing of adsorbed nanoparticles demonstrate intensive development. Therefore, the final part of the review is focused on the wide-field surface plasmon resonance microscopy. It allows one an ultrasensitive detection and characterization of individual nanoparticles of different origin in complex media and provides numerous possibilities for subsequent chemical identification of the detected particles using a hyphenation with other analytical technologies. KW - Nanoparticles KW - Detection of nanoparticles KW - Characterization of nanoparticles KW - Optical techniques KW - Surface plasmon resonance microscopy KW - Nanoparticle tracking analysis Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aca.2022.339633 SN - 1873-4324 VL - 1204 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Karačić, Dalibor A1 - Gutić, Sanjin J. A1 - Vasić, Borislav A1 - Mirsky, Vladimir M. A1 - Skorodumova, Natalia V. A1 - Mentus, Slavko V. A1 - Pašti, Igor A. T1 - Electrochemical reduction of thin graphene-oxide films in aqueous solutions – Restoration of conductivity T2 - Electrochimica Acta N2 - Graphene oxide finds applications in different fields of science, including energy conversion. Electrochemical reduction of graphene oxide (GO) significantly improves its conductivity. However, the kinetics of this process depends on the solvent, supporting electrolyte, pH, and numerous other factors. Most studies report the macroscopic views and ex-situ properties of reduced GO. To expand the knowledge about GO reduction, in this study, we used cyclic voltammetry (CV), simultaneous 2 points and 4 points resistance measurement (s24), conductive atomic force microscopy (AFM), and theoretical calculations. Using CV, we demonstrated that the choice of supporting electrolyte (KCl or LiCl) influences the potential range in which electrochemical GO reduction occurs. The activation energy of this process was estimated to be below 30 kJ mol‒1 in both electrolytes, being significantly lower than that required for thermal reduction of GO. Simultaneous in situ s24 resistance measurements suggest that GO films reach a highly conductive state at deep negative potentials, with an abrupt, irreversible switch from non-conductive to the conductive state. However, conductive AFM presents a more exact picture of this process: the reduction of GO films starts locally while the formed conductive islands grow during the reduction. This mechanism was confirmed by theoretical calculations indicating that the reduction starts on isolated oxygen-functional groups over the GO basal plane, while clustered OH groups are more difficult to reduce. The presented results can help in tailoring reduced GO for a particular electrochemical application by precisely controlling the reduction degree and percentage of the conductive area of the reduced GO films. KW - Electrochemical reduction of graphene oxide KW - Supporting electrolyte effect KW - Simultaneous 2-point 4-point resistance measurements KW - Conductive atomic force microscopy KW - Theoretical calculations Y1 - 2022 UR - https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0013468622002183 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.electacta.2022.140046 SN - 1873-3859 SN - 0013-4686 VL - 410 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Snopok, Borys A1 - Laroussi, Arwa A1 - Cafolla, Clodomiro A1 - Voitchovsky, Kislon A1 - Snopok, Tetyana A1 - Mirsky, Vladimir M. T1 - Gold surface cleaning by etching polishing: Optimization of polycrystalline film topography and surface functionality for biosensing T2 - Surfaces and Interfaces N2 - Modern bio-chemical sensors rely on functional interfacial architectures with well-defined structural nano-motifs over a physical transducer. Gold-coated interfaces are of particular interest for their desirable chemical (functionalization) and optical (plasmonic) properties. Here we investigate the cleaning and polishing of polycrystalline gold films in preparation of advanced surface functionalization. We focus on soft wet chemical etching to decrease the small-scale roughness commonly observed after evaporation or sputtering of gold. We show that optimized surfaces are obtained by etching in solutions of hydrochloric acid and hydrogen peroxide. We systematically quantify the films wettability, surface nano-topography, UV-VIS spectrum and the electrochemical and Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) changes throughout the etching process. Optimal results are obtained by etching with a HCl(37%):H2O2(30%):H2O mixture, with a volume ratio of reagents 3:3:94 during 15-20 minutes at room temperature for the main step. This reduces by a factor two the root-mean-square roughness, removes contaminants, increases hydrophilicity and modifies the gold surface by Au(Cl)x complexes. Significantly, the resulting the surface is hydrophilic enough to prevent globular proteins such as HSA to unfold upon deposition at concentrations more than ~1 mg/mL. Our protocol offers a simple, reliable and rapid method for the preparation of gold surface in view of further functionalization including the binding of receptor layers and various micro- and nanostructures required in chemical and biochemical sensing. KW - polycrystalline gold films KW - soft wet chemical polishing KW - gold cleaning KW - hydrochloric acid and hydrogen peroxide KW - protein adsorption KW - surface plasmon resonance Y1 - 2021 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.surfin.2020.100818 SN - 2468-0230 VL - 22 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Laurinavichyute, Veronika K. A1 - Nizamov, Shavkat A1 - Mirsky, Vladimir M. T1 - Real time tracking of the early stage of electrochemical nucleation T2 - Electrochimica Acta N2 - An analysis of early stage of electrochemical nucleation is crucial in order to understand the mechanism of this process and for electrochemical synthesis of new materials. We show here an application of the wide field surface plasmon microscopy (WF-SPRM) for this purpose. It allows us in-situ monitoring of the growth of nuclei in the range from ~20 till over 1000 nm. The system registers the moment and the place of the formation of each individual nucleus for the total number of the tracked nuclei up to ~10,000 per 1 mm2. The results demonstrate that the integral information obtained from electrochemical measurements can be extracted quantitatively from optical measurements while optical data provide also information on the size of each individual nucleus, individual nucleation time, localization and growth kinetics, and allows one to distinguish the rate limiting stage for each individual nucleus. In this work WF-SPRM was applied for investigation of electrochemical deposition of copper on gold, but this technique can be extended easily to other materials or other nucleation types. KW - Surface plasmon resonance microscopy KW - Nucleation and growth KW - Copper deposition KW - Growth kinetics KW - Diffusion zones Y1 - 2021 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.electacta.2021.138278 SN - 0013-4686 VL - 382 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Laroussi, Arwa A1 - Raouafi, Noureddine A1 - Mirsky, Vladimir M. T1 - Electrocatalytic Sensor for Hydrogen Peroxide Based on Immobilized Benzoquinone T2 - Electroanalysis N2 - An amperometric chemosensor for the detection of hydrogen peroxide is reported. The sensor is based on 1,4-benzoquinone immobilized on the gold electrode using self-assembled monolayer of short chain symmetrical dithiol as an anchor layer. Sensor analysis was performed by cyclic voltammetry at the potential range from −0.6 V till +0.9 V as well as in the anodic or cathodic potential ranges only. The results indicate oxidative electrochemical decomposition of hydrogen peroxide at the potential of ∼+0.4 V leading to the formation of oxygen while at cathodic potentials a reduction of the formed oxygen as well as of the hydrogen peroxide occur. A decrease in the oxidation potential of hydrogen peroxide on the gold electrode coated by self-assembled monolayer with 1,4-benzoquinone in comparison with that measured on the electrodes coated by the same self-assembled monolayer without 1,4-benzoquinone, indicates electrocatalytic effect of this moiety on oxidative decomposition of hydrogen peroxide. Analytical evaluation of the sensor performance was done in the voltammetric as well as in the chronoamperometric mode. The sensor exhibited linear response over the concentration range till 2.5 mM with a limit of detection ∼4 μM. KW - Hydrogen peroxide KW - Chemical sensor KW - Electrocatalysis KW - Benzoquinone KW - Self-assembled monolaye Y1 - 2021 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/elan.202100113 SN - 1521-4109 VL - 33 IS - 9 SP - 2062 EP - 2070 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Efremenko, Yulia A1 - Mirsky, Vladimir M. T1 - Electrical Control of the Receptor Affinity T2 - Engineering Proceedings ; Proceedings of The 8th International Symposium on Sensor Science N2 - A concept of virtual sensor array based on an electrically controlled variation of affinity properties of the receptor layer was realized on the base of integrated electrochemical chemotransistor containing conducting polymer as the receptor layer. Electrical control of the redox-state of the polymer (polyaniline) was performed in a five-electrode configuration with four electrodes for conductivity measurements and Ag/AgCl reference electrode integrated on the same glass chip. An ionic liquid provided an electrical connection between the reference electrode and chemosensitive material. Conductivity measurements demonstrated potential controlled electrochemical conversions of the receptor material between different redox states. The binding of trimethylamine at three different potentials corresponding to these states was studied. The results demonstrated that both kinetic- and equilibrium-binding properties of the receptor are controlled by the electrical potential, thus providing a possibility to form a virtual sensor array using only a single sensing element. The concept was applied for monitoring fish headspace. Using three characteristics of the sensor response measured at three different redox states of the same sensor material, we obtained signals from a virtual sensor array consisting of nine chemosensitive elements. The sensor displays systematic changes of its nine signals during fish degradation. This approach can be applied also for the electrical control of the affinity of immunoglobulins. Development of new materials with electrically controlled affinity is in progress. KW - conducting polymer; affinity; virtual sensor array Y1 - 2021 UR - https://www.mdpi.com/2673-4591/6/1/3 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3390/I3S2021Dresden-10084 SN - 2673-4591 VL - 26 IS - 6(1) PB - MDPI CY - Basel, Switzerland ET - 3. Auflage ER - TY - GEN A1 - Mirsky, Vladimir M. T1 - Electrochemical sensors between the academic world and harsh reality: a few thoughts on the past, present, and future T2 - Journal of Solid State Electrochemistry Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s10008-020-04711-1 SN - 1433-0768 SN - 1432-8488 VL - 24 IS - 9 SP - 2147 EP - 2149 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Efremenko, Yulia A1 - Mirsky, Vladimir M. T1 - Poly-3-thienylboronic acid: a chemosensitive derivative of polythiophene T2 - Journal of Solid State Electrochemistry N2 - Poly-3-thiopheneboronic acid was synthesized by electrochemical polymerization from 3-thienylboronic acid dissolved in the mixture of boron trifluoride diethyl etherate and acetonitrile. Cyclic voltammetry during electropolymerization shows oxidative and reductive peaks growing in each next cycle. An investigation by scanning electron microscopy displayed the polymer layer like a highly flexible film of 110 nm thick with grains of 60–120 nm in size. Strong negative solvatochromic effect was observed. Optical spectra of poly-3-thienylboronic acid at different potentials and pH were studied. Potential cycling leads to a well reversible electrochromic effect. At pH 7.4, the increase of potential leads to the decrease in the absorption band at 480 nm and to the rise in the absorption band at 810 nm with an isosbestic point at 585 nm. Spectroelectrochemical behavior of poly-3-thienylboronic acid and polythiophene was compared. Binding of sorbitol at fixed electrode potential leads to an increase in the absorbance in the shortwave band and to the decrease in the longwave band; the effect depends on the electrode potential and pH. Perspectives of application of poly-3-thienylboronic acid as new chemosensitive material are discussed. KW - Chemosensitive conducting polymers KW - Polythiophene KW - Poly-3-thienylboronic acid KW - Spectroelectrochemistry KW - Sorbitol sensing Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s10008-020-04767-z SN - 1433-0768 SN - 1432-8488 VL - 24 IS - 11-12 SP - 3105 EP - 3111 ER -