Chemical sensors generated on wafer-scale epitaxial graphene for application to front-line drug detection

Abstract

Generation of large areas of graphene possessing high quality and uniformity will be a critical factor if graphene-based devices/sensors are to be commercialized. In this work, epitaxial graphene on a 2" SiC wafer was used to fabricate sensors for the detection of illicit drugs (amphetamine or cocaine). The main target application is on-site forensic detection where there is a high demand for reliable and cost-efficient tools. The sensors were designed and processed with specially configured metal electrodes on the graphene surface by utilizing a series of anchors where the metal contacts are directly connected on the SiC substrate. This has been shown to improve adhesion of the electrodes and decrease the contact resistance. A microfluidic system was constructed to pump solutions over the defined graphene surface that could then act as a sensor area and react with the target drugs. Several prototypic systems were tested where non-covalent interactions were used to localize the sensing components (antibodies) within the measurement cell. The serendipitous discovery of a wavelength-dependent photoactivity for amphetamine and a range of its chemical analogs, however, limited the general application of these prototypic systems. The experimental results reveal that the drug molecules interact with the graphene in a molecule dependent manner based upon a balance of π-stacking interaction of the phenyl ring with graphene (p-doping) and the donation of the amine nitrogens lone pair electrons into the π-π*-system of graphene (n-doping).