Investigating Membrane Material and Morphology for Development of Lateral Flow Biosensor

Abstract

Development of membrane for bio–sensing applications, such as the detection of pathogens in drinking water for epidemics control has a huge global impact especially for public health. Membrane that applied in the bio–sensing devices should fulfill requirements such as high binding ability, fast lateral wicking time and low background staining. This paper explores the selection of membranes, including Nitrocellulose membrane (NC), Cellulose Acetate membrane (CA), Polyvinylidene Fluoride membrane (PVDF) and Nylon membrane for the detection of pathogens in water in the most efficient and rapid way. Membrane modification using glutaraldehyde enable the achieved of higher sensitivity of protein binding. Experimental findings (FTIR, porosity, membrane’s binding ability and lateral wicking time) verified the most suitable membrane for bio-sensing application. Among the tested membranes, NC appeared as the most suitable lateral flow membrane as its performances of high protein binding ability and fast lateral wicking time. Throughout this study, we showed the correlation of membrane’s material and morphology to its performances for pathogens detection in drinking water.