Liquid-Crystal Biosensor Based on Nickel-Nanosphere-Induced Homeotropic Alignment for the Amplified Detection of Thrombin

A new liquid-crystal (LC)-based sensor operated by nickel nanosphere (NiNS)-induced homeotropic alignment for the label-free monitoring of thrombin was reported. When doped with NiNSs, a uniform vertical orientation of 4-cyano-4'-pentylbiphenyl (5CB) was easily obtained. A sandwich system of aptamer/thrombin/aptamer-functionalized gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) was fabricated, and AuNPs-aptamer conjugation caused the disruption of the 5CB orientation, leading to an obvious change of the optical appearance from a dark to a bright response to thrombin concentrations from 0.1 to 100 nM. This design also allowed quantitative detection of the thrombin concentration. This distinctive and sensitive thrombin LC sensor provides a new principle for building LC-sensing systems.