The sensitivity of optical biosensors where the detection takes place on a
planar gold surface can be improved by making the surface porous. The poros
ity allows a larger number of ligands per surface area resulting in larger
optical shifts when interacting with specifically binding analyte molecules
. The porous gold was deposited as a thin layer on a planar gold surface by
electrochemical deposition in a solution of tetrachloroaurate and lead ace
tate. A protein, streptavidin, was adsorbed into the formed porous layer an
d the time course of the adsorption was monitored by in-situ ellipsometry.
When the porous layer was 500 nm in thickness a six-fold increase of the el
lipsometric response was obtained compared with a planar gold surface. The
dependency of porosity and layer thickness was explained with a mathematica
l model of the gold/porous gold/protein/solution system. (C) 2000 Elsevier
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