Abstract
High-sensitivity screening of biomarkers is a critical issue for early disease detection and diagnosis. Here the development of integrated electrostatic exclusion and AC electrokinetic flow control devices for rapidly attomolar detection of virus is reported. An insulated-CNTs electrode modified with monoclonal antibody for 80 nm bacteriophages exhibit close to a 10 4 increase in sensitivity due to streaming ACEO and corresponding electrostatic contribution to the binding affinity after application of an AC electric-field. We demonstrate that bacteriophages can be dynamically positioned with an electric-field strength as small as 2×10 3-5 V/m and define the operating parameters for increasing the concentration of phages by 4 orders of magnitude less than 10 minutes. These results show general applicability of this method, and could open up opportunities in early stage disease detection and the analysis of proteins from single cells.