A sandwich-type photoelectrochemical immunosensor for NT-pro BNP detection based on F-BiWO/AgS and GO/PDA for signal amplification.

A sandwich-type photoelectrochemical (PEC) immunosensing platform was designed for detection of amino-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-pro BNP). Thereinto, flower-like BiWO/AgS nanoparticles (F-BiWO/AgS) were employed as photoelectrochemical matrix, and graphene oxide and polydopamine composite (GO/PDA) were prepared as signal labels. In this proposal, AgS was in-situ growth on the surface of F-BiWO modified with thioglycolic acid (TGA). Specially, a cascade-like band-edge level between F-BiWO and AgS effectively improved the photocurrent conversion efficiency and enhanced the photocurrent response. Then, the conjugated GO/PDA aimed to further amplify signal because PDA as electron donor could sweep the holes and inhibit the recombination of photogenerated electron-hole pairs, while GO owned brilliant conductivity speeding up the electrons transfer. The photocurrent increased with the amount of GO/PDA conjugates which had positive correlation with the NT-pro BNP. Under optimal experimental conditions, the proposed sandwich-type PEC immunosensor presented a desirable linear relationship ranged from 0.1 pg/mL to 100 ng/mL for NT-pro BNP with the detection limit of 0.03 pg/mL (S/N = 3). The prepared PEC immunosensor exhibited high stability and selectivity, which offered an innovative idea for the detection of other biomolecules.