Programming biosensing sensitivity by controlling the dimension of nanostructured electrode.

Development of new nanostructured materials has shown high impact for improving the performance of chemical and biological sensors. In this work, we show that by controlling the dimensions of the gold flower microelectrode (GFME), it is possible to regulate detection sensitivity of a sensor for rapid analysis of chemical species. A ~13-fold increase in sensitivity was achieved by enlarging the dimension of GFMEs from 70 to 330 μm, whereas the response dynamics are dimension-independent, with the signal attaining saturation ~20 s. Due to the intrinsic nanostructure on the microelectrode surface, our GFME exhibits excellent anti-interference property when applied to detect dopamine (DA) in the presence of 10-fold excess of ascorbic acid (AA). The regulable sensitivity, fast response dynamics, and excellent anti-interference property will make GFME an ideal sensing platform for biomedical applications. Graphical abstract ᅟ.