Manufacture and utilization of a biodegradable sensor platform from gold coated zein nanophotonic films to detect acrylamide and Ara-h1 using SERS
type: CreativeWork
description: With the current developments in biosensor and nanotechnology, detection of analyses that are important to food industry are becoming more commonplace. One of the strong tools that nanotechnology enabled is Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS). SERS is a highly sensitive and specific technique which provides molecular fingerprinting, with the enhancement effect as a result of roughened noble metal surfaces. The platform for these surfaces are generally made out of non-biodegradable, plastic materials. As the one-time use, large scale applications are needed for many fields such as medical, forensic and food industry, disposability of these sensors will pose a problem in the future. In the scope of this dissertation, we investigated the feasibility of a biodegradable sensor platform that is made of zein, a corn protein, utilized in SERS measurements of food analytes. First, the effect of parent substrate (the surface, which zein was cast on) and plasticizer, oleic acid content, on the surface hydrophilicity of resulting zein films was analyzed. It was found that the surface chemistry of the parent substrate was more important than the topography of the parent substrate. Oxygen plasma was used to make the polydimethylsilohexane (PDMS) surfaces more hydrophilic and it was found that zein film surfaces that were in contact with PDMS also had more hydrophilic surfaces, compared to regular PDMS, which is a hydrophobic material. Water contact angle (WCA) method was used to quantify the hydrophilicity of zein films. WCA reached values as low as 20 degrees with a high oleic acid content. Increase in oleic acid content in the formulation of zein films as well as the parent substrate chemistry was found to influence the water affnity of zein films. In the development of the fabrication method of nanopatterned and gold coated zein surfaces, a simultaneous three-dimensional transfer was used. Four different nanopatterns, namely positive pyramids, inverted pyramids, nano pi…
abstract: With the current developments in biosensor and nanotechnology, detection of analyses that are important to food industry are becoming more commonplace. One of the strong tools that nanotechnology enabled is Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS). SERS is a highly sensitive and specific technique which provides molecular fingerprinting, with the enhancement effect as a result of roughened noble metal surfaces. The platform for these surfaces are generally made out of non-biodegradable, plastic materials. As the one-time use, large scale applications are needed for many fields such as medical, forensic and food industry, disposability of these sensors will pose a problem in the future. In the scope of this dissertation, we investigated the feasibility of a biodegradable sensor platform that is made of zein, a corn protein, utilized in SERS measurements of food analytes. First, the effect of parent substrate (the surface, which zein was cast on) and plasticizer, oleic acid content, on the surface hydrophilicity of resulting zein films was analyzed. It was found that the surface chemistry of the parent substrate was more important than the topography of the parent substrate. Oxygen plasma was used to make the polydimethylsilohexane (PDMS) surfaces more hydrophilic and it was found that zein film surfaces that were in contact with PDMS also had more hydrophilic surfaces, compared to regular PDMS, which is a hydrophobic material. Water contact angle (WCA) method was used to quantify the hydrophilicity of zein films. WCA reached values as low as 20 degrees with a high oleic acid content. Increase in oleic acid content in the formulation of zein films as well as the parent substrate chemistry was found to influence the water affnity of zein films. In the development of the fabrication method of nanopatterned and gold coated zein surfaces, a simultaneous three-dimensional transfer was used. Four different nanopatterns, namely positive pyramids, inverted pyramids, nano pi…
author: Gezer, Pervin Gizem
language: en
keywords: Zein, biosensor, Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS), Raman, acrylamide, peanut allergen, detection, surface
date published: 2016-03-02T20:23:58Z
date modified: 2026-07-22T22:26:32Z
provider: University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: http://hdl.handle.net/2142/89133