One-pot electrografting preparation of bifunctionalized carbon nanotubes for sensitive electrochemical immunosensing

Carbon nanomaterials such as multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) have received intense interest in the field of electrochemical biosensing due to their unique electrical, optical, thermal, and mechanical properties. In general, biomolecule conjugation and attachment of an electrochemical probe are two key elements for preparing an electrochemical sensor. The above tasks are often achieved by a step-by-step reaction due to different reaction conditions. However, because of the low reactivity of MWCNT, it is challenging to precisely control the amount of the two modifiers on the MWCNT surface with sequential reactions. Herein, we report a one-pot electrografting procedure based on free-radical polymerization to attach both an electrochemical probe and a biomolecular coupling agent on MWCNT in a highly controlled manner. The ratio of the two modifiers was facilely regulated to balance the electrochemical …