Electrochemical biosensor based on topological insulator Bi2Se3 tape electrode for HIV-1 DNA detection.

A large-size Bi2Se3 tape electrode (BTE) was prepared by peeling off a 2 × 1 × 0.5 cm high-quality single crystal. The feasibility of using the flexible BTE as an efficient bioplatform to load Au nanoparticles and probe DNA for HIV-1 DNA electrochemical sensing was explored. Differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) show that the resultant biosensor has a wide linear range from 0.1 fM to 1 pM, a low detection limit of 50 aM, excellent selectivity, reproducibility and stability, and is superior to the pM DNA detection level of Pt-Au, graphene-AuNPs hybrid biosensors. This outstanding performance is attributed to the intrinsic surface state of Bi2Se3 topological insulator in facilitating electron transfer. Therefore, BTE electrochemical biosensor platform has great potential in the application for sensitive detection of DNA biomarkers.