A Love wave immunosensor for whole E. coli bacteria detection using an innovative two-step immobilisation approach.

The efficiency of a monomolecular film of (3-glycidoxypropyl) trimethoxysilane (GPTS) on a shear horizontal guided (Love) acoustic wave immunosensor to detect whole Escherichia coli (E. coli) bacteria is demonstrated. Direct anti-E. coli antibodies grafting onto the sensor surface did not lead to a significant bacteria immobilisation, partially attributed to the SiO2 sensor surface roughness. An innovative method has been set up to get around this difficulty and to detect whole bacteria. It consists in grafting goat anti-mouse antibodies (GAM) onto the sensor surface in a first step and introducing E. coli bacteria mixed with anti-E. coli antibodies onto the sensor in a second step. We describe the characteristics of such a technique like sample preparation time (lower than 30 min) and temperature improvements. A 37 degrees C experimental temperature led to the fastest bacteria binding kinetic, reducing the total analysis time. This method enables to keep the specificity of the antibody/antigen interaction and provides significant results in less than 1h. This leads to a detection threshold of 10(6) bacteria/ml in a 500 microl chamber.

Coupled determination of gravimetric and elastic effects on two resonant chemical sensors: love wave and microcantilever platforms.

The objective of this paper is to couple theoretical and experimental results from microcantilevers and Love-wave acoustic devices in order to identify and separate mass loading effects from elastic effects. This is important in the perspective of sensing applications. For that, a thin-film polymer is deposited on both resonant platforms. It is demonstrated that microcantilevers are essentially mass sensitive. They allow one to determine the polymer layer thickness, which is validated by optical profilometry measurements. Then, taking into account this thickness, theoretical modeling and experimental measurements with Love-wave devices permit one to estimate an equivalent elastic shear modulus of the thin-film polymer at high frequency. Results are interesting if one is to fully understand and optimize (bio)chemical sensor responses.