Alkaline Phosphatase-Mediated Bioetching of CoOOH/BiVO4 for Signal-On Organic Photoelectrochemical Transistor Bioanalysis

Organic photoelectrochemical transistor (OPECT) bioanalytics has recently appeared as a promising route for biological measurements, which has major implications in both next-generation photoelectrochemical (PEC) bioanalysis and futuristic biorelated implementations. Via biological dissociation of materials, bioetching is a useful technique for bio-manufacturing and bioanalysis. The intersection of these two domains is expected to be a possible way to achieve innovative OPECT bioanalytics. Herein, we validate such a possibility, which is exemplified by alkaline phosphatase (ALP)-mediated bioetching of a CoOOH/BiVO4 gate for a signal-on OPECT immunoassay of human immunoglobulin G (HIgG) as the model target. Specifically, target-dependent bioetching of the upper CoOOH layer could result into an enhanced electrolyte contact and light accessibility to BiVO4, leading to the modulated response of the polymeric poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrene sulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) channel that could be monitored by the channel current. The introduced biosensor achieves sensitive detection of HIgG with high selectivity and sensitivity. This work features bioetching-enabled high-efficacy OPECT bioanalysis and is anticipated to serve as a generic protocol, considering the diverse bioetching routes.