Polydopamine (PDA) films were fabricated on thin film gold substrates in a single-step polymerization-deposition process from dopamine solutions and then employed in the construction of robust DNA microarrays for the ultrasensitive detection of biomolecules with nanoparticle-enhanced surface plasmon resonance (SPR) imaging. PDA multilayers with thicknesses varying from 1 to 5 nm were characterized with a combination of scanning angle SPR and AFM experiments, and 1.3 ± 0.2 nm PDA multilayers were chosen as an optimal thickness for the SPR imaging measurements. DNA microarrays were then fabricated by the reaction of amine-functionalized single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) oligonucleotides with PDA-modified gold thin film microarray elements, and were subsequently employed in SPR imaging measurements of DNA hybridization adsorption and protein-DNA binding. Concurrent control experiments with non-complementary ssDNA sequences demonstrated that the adhesive PDA multilayer was also able to provide good resistance to the nonspecific binding of biomolecules. Finally, a series of SPR imaging measurements of the hybridization adsorption of DNA-modified gold nanoparticles onto mixed sequence DNA microarrays were used to confirm that the use of PDA multilayer films is a simple, rapid, and versatile method for fabricating DNA microarrays for ultrasensitive nanoparticle-enhanced SPR imaging biosensing.

We describe a manufacturable and scalable method for fabrication of multiscale wrinkled silica (SiO2) structures on shrink-wrap film to enhance fluorescence signals in DNA fluorescence microarrays. We are able to enhance the fluorescence signal of hybridized DNA by more than 120 fold relative to a planar glass slide. Notably, our substrate has improved detection sensitivity (280 pM) relative to planar glass slide (11 nM). Furthermore, this is accompanied by a 30-45 times improvement in the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). Unlike metal enhanced fluorescence (MEF) based enhancements, this is a far-field and uniform effect based on surface concentration and photophysical effects from the nano- to microscale SiO2 structures. Notably, the photophysical effects contribute an almost 2.5 fold enhancement over the concentration effects alone. Therefore, this simple and robust method offers an efficient technique to enhance the detection capabilities of fluorescence based DNA microarrays.