Biomolecule immobilization techniques for bioactive paper fabrication.

Research into paper-based sensors or functional materials that can perform analytical functions with active recognition capabilities is rapidly expanding, and significant research effort has been made into the design and fabrication of bioactive paper at the biosensor level to detect potential health hazards. A key step in the fabrication of bioactive paper is the design of the experimental and operational procedures for the immobilization of biomolecules such as antibodies, enzymes, phages, cells, proteins, synthetic polymers and DNA aptamers on a suitably prepared paper membrane. The immobilization methods are concisely categorized into physical absorption, bioactive ink entrapment, bioaffinity attachment and covalent chemical bonding immobilization. Each method has individual immobilization characteristics. Although every biomolecule-paper combination has to be optimized before use, the bioactive ink entrapment method is the most commonly used approach owing to its general applicability and biocompatibility. Currently, there are four common applications of bioactive paper: (1) paper-based bioassay or paper-based analytical devices for sample conditioning; (2) counterfeiting and countertempering in the packaging and construction industries; (3) pathogen detection for food and water quality monitoring; and (4) deactivation of pathogenic bacteria using antimicrobial paper. This article reviews and compares the different biomolecule immobilization techniques and discusses current trends. Current, emerging and future applications of bioactive paper are also discussed.

Analysis of gyrobianisotropic media effect on the input impedance, field distribution and mutual coupling of a printed dipole antenna.

In this paper, we present an analytical study for the investigation of the effects of the magnetoelectric elements of a reciprocal and nonreciprocal bianisotropic grounded substrate on the input impedance, resonant length of a dipole antenna as well as on the mutual coupling between two element printed dipole array in three configuration geometries: broadside, collinear and echelon printed on the same material. This study examines also the effect of the considered bianisotropic medium on the electric and magnetic field distributions that has been less addressed in the literature for antenna structures. Computations are based on the numerical resolution, using the spectral method of moments, of the integral equation developed through the mathematical derivation of the appropriate spectral Green's functions of the studied dipole configuration. Original results, for chiral, achiral, Tellegen and general bi-anisotropic media cases, are obtained and discussed with the electric and magnetic field distributions for a better understanding and interpretation. These interesting results can serve as a stepping stone for further works to attract more attention to the reciprocal and non-reciprocal Tellgen media in-depth studies.