Electrical Detection of Fast Reaction Kinetics in Nanochannels with an Induced Flow

Nanofluidic channels can be used to enhance surface binding reactions, since the target molecules are closely confined to the surfaces that are coated with specific binding partners. Moreover, diffusion-limited binding can be significantly enhanced if the molecules are steered into the nanochannels via either pressure-driven or electrokinetic flow. By monitoring the nanochannel impedance, which is sensitive to surface binding, low analyte concentrations have been detected electrically in nanofluidic channels within response times of 1-2 h. This represents a approximately 54 fold reduction in the response time using convective flow compared to diffusion-limited binding. At high-flow velocities, the presented method of reaction kinetics enhancement is potentially limited by force-induced dissociations of the receptor-ligand bonds. Optimization of this scheme could be useful for label-free, electrical detection of biomolecule binding reactions within nanochannels on a chip.