Silver nanoparticles on a plastic platform for localized surface plasmon resonance biosensing.

A cost-effective fabrication method for the preparation of localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) biosensors supported on plastics is described. The silver-nanoparticles-on-plastic sensor (SNOPS) was fabricated by chemically modifying the surface of a common plastic, polyethylene terephthalate (PET) to allow the efficient immobilization of Ag NPs. The LSPR of the SNOPS strip showed good sample-to-sample reproducibility. The analytical performance of the sensor strips for monitoring both thiol and protein adsorption, including bioaffinity, was examined. The limit of quantification to the adsorption of 11-mercaptoundecanoic acid was 500 nM and for the detection of streptavidin was approximately 9.5 nM. SNOPS can then be used as a cheap, versatile, and yet sensitive LSPR biosensor.