Comparison of “Dry Sensing” and “Wet Sensing” of a Protein With a Graphene Sensor

The development of a new sensing procedure for protein could open up significant opportunities for the detection of a variety of biomarkers in healthcare. Here, a new detection procedure called “dry sensing” was invented for the detection of bovine serum albumin (BSA), and its performance was studied and compared with a “wet sensing” procedure with a flexible graphene sensor. Both detection methods show a highly sensitive detection of BSA: a typical protein. “Wet sensing” shows a broader detection range of 5.88E-06 to 2.07E-04 (w/v), but the sensing signal is not stable and consistent. Further, its detection time can be as long as more than 10 min (due to the long drifting time of the signal). “Dry sensing” shows a broad detection as well from 0.01% to 0.1% (w/v), though it's narrower than that of “wet sensing.” Since “dry sensing” avoids the drifting of an electrical signal, the signal is more stable and consistent, and the detection time can be controlled with 1 min. The current method could lead to significant progress for sensing a variety of analytes based on antigen-antibody binding or DNA hybridization.