Improving the sensitivity of a quartz crystal microbalance for biosensing by using porous gold

A quartz crystal microbalance can be used as a biosensor if biological receptor molecules (ligands) are attached to the crystal. To improve the sensitivity, the surface area of the gold electrodes on the crystal was increased by rendering the electrodes porous. This increased the response up to a factor of 3. A protein model system with human anti-myoglobin as ligand and sheep skeletal myoglobin at different concentrations as analyte was used. The quartz crystal was mounted in a flow-cell, where immobilisation, binding and regeneration of the surface were carried out. The kinetics of the model system was monitored under various experimental conditions.