Opioid misuse and overdose have caused devastating public health challenges and economic burdens. However, current clinical tests are passive, require in-person visits, and have a long turnaround time for results. Therefore, real-time, point-of-care opioid sensors are urgently needed to provide appropriate treatments to first responders. Despite significant interests in point-of-care opioid sensors, challenges such as lowering the limit of detection, metal corrosion and noise in signals remain. Here, we prepare photonic crystal-based opioid sensors that provide label-free, quantitative measurements with non-corrosive materials and free of electromagnetic interference. A thin absorbing layer is added to the one-dimensional photonic crystal (1D PhC) and the sensor is demonstrated in a total internal reflection configuration. Together, it serves as a resonator with an open microcavity, which allows for immobilization of opioid antibodies. The highly accessible structure can respond to analytes immediately. Since the sensing is dependent on refractive index change upon binding with analytes, to achieve the highest sensitivity, different incident angle of light was investigated. At an incident angle of 63.03 degree, our sensor reached sensitivity of 5,688.8 nm/RIU, while other similar 1D PhC sensors showed sensitivity around 2,000 nm/RIU. We tested the utility of the photonic crystal sensor for detecting morphine and fentanyl, demonstrating a lower limit of detection of 10 ng/mL, close to the clinical detection limit, while showing high specificity and selectivity. The easy coupling of light to resonant modes of the photonic crystal offers promise to miniaturization.

Highly sensitive one-dimensional photonic crystal based opioid sensor

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ACS Fall 2022

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.