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The access to the contents of this doctoral thesis it is limited to the acceptance of the use conditions set by the following Creative Commons license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/?lang=en Design and application of nanomaterial-based lateral flow devices Daniel Quesada González PhD Thesis PhD in Chemistry Director ICREA Prof. Dr. Arben Merkoçi Chemistry Department, Science Faculty 2018 The present work entitled “Design and application of nanomaterial-based lateral flow devices”, presented by Daniel Quesada González to obtain the degree of doctor by University Autònoma de Barcelona, was performed at the Nanobioelectronics and Biosensors Group at the Institut Català de Nanociència i Nanotecnologia (ICN2), under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Arben Merkoçi, ICREA Professor and Group Leader. This work was performed under the framework of the PhD Programme in Chemistry of Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, under the tutorship of Prof. Dr. Gonzalo Guirado López. The author Daniel Quesada González Approval: The director Prof. Dr. Arben Merkoçi Bellaterra, September 2018 “But still try for who knows what is possible!” Dr. Michael Faraday, father of Nanoscience PREFACE This PhD thesis is focused on the development of lateral flow devices based on the use of nanomaterials with the objective to enhance the detection performance in terms of sensitivity in addition to other analytical parameters. The state-of-the art studies carried out resulted in three review publications: Quesada-González, D. & Merkoçi, A. “Nanoparticle-based lateral flow biosensors”. Biosens. Bioelectron. 73, 47–63 (2015). Quesada-González, D. & Merkoçi, A. “Mobile phone–based biosensing: an emerging ‘diagnostic and communication’ technology”. Biosens. Bioelectron. 92, 549–562 (2016). Quesada-González, D. & Merkoçi, A. “Nanomaterial-Based Devices for Point-of-Care Diagnostic Applications”. Chem. Soc. Rev. 47, 4697–4709 (2018). Also the experimental work performed conducted to four full length articles not yet published: Quesada-González, D.; Jairo, G. A.; Blake, R.C., Blake, D.A. & Merkoçi, A. “Uranium (VI) detection in groundwater using a gold nanoparticle/paper-based lateral flow device”. In preparation (2018) – work related to Chapter 3. Quesada-González, D.; Stefani, C.; González, I.; de la Escosura-Muñiz, I.; Domingo, N.; Mutjé, P. & Merkoçi, A. “Signal enhancement on gold nanoparticle-based lateral flow tests using cellulose nanofibers”. In preparation (2018) – work related to Chapter 4. Quesada-González, D.; Baiocco, A.; Martos, A. A.; de la Escosura-Muñiz, A.; Palleschi, G. & Merkoçi, A. “Iridium oxide (IV) nanoparticle-based electrocatalytic detection of PBDE”. In preparation (2018) – work related to Chapter 5. Quesada-González, D.; Sena-Torralba, A.; Wicaksono, W. P.; de la Escosura-Muñiz, A.; Ivandini, T. A. & Merkoçi A. “Iridium oxide (IV) nanoparticle-based lateral flow immunoassay”. In preparation (2018) – work related to Chapter 5. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS In this section I would like to thank all the people that has accompanied me during this PhD, those who guided me, those with whom I collaborated and those who were always there. Because a PhD is not an individual work, because it is possible thanks to all of them. First of all, Prof. Dr. Arben Merkoçi, director of this thesis and group leader in Nanobioelectronics and Biosensors Group. Thank you for accepting me in your group, for guiding me during all these years and for everything you taught me about being a good researcher. When I first arrived to the group, six years ago, I really felt like a child, lost and scared, an undergraduate student afraid of failing, for the first time in a real lab surrounded by true scientists, doubting of everything I knew, doubting of myself. But little by little, I lost my fears, I saw that the group was more than that, like a big family, and Arben, you believed in me, you allowed me to do a master and then the PhD. I grew up, I learnt, I changed and now I’m writing a doctoral work. Thank you for everything. I would like to acknowledge some people in the UAB. My tutor, Dr. Gonzalo Guirado Lopez, for his support during this work and his kind patience answering all my e-mails. Also to the coordinator of the PhD programme in Chemistry, Dr. Mariona Sodupe, and the responsible of administrative management in Chemistry Department, Elena Jiménez, because I also sent you thousands of e-mails and chased you with many questions during these years. And finally, a huge thank you to Dr. Josefina Pons, because she recommended me to Arben and because without her I would not have entered in the group. Dr. Alfredo de la Escosura, thank you for all these years supporting me, counselling me and for everything I learnt from you. There were many times when I didn’t know how to continue but with your counselling and optimism I found new routes, I understood how to learn from the errors and that going back doesn’t mean not moving forward. If now I’m able to progress, to find the way and guiding the new students, it is because I learnt if from you. Thank you! Dr. Lourdes Rivas, the first person I meet in the group. We spent many hours working together and I learnt a lot things from you, hard to mention all of them but I must at least highlight three: how to build a lateral flow strip, how to synthetize gold nanoparticles and how to produce iridium oxide nanoparticles; three important pillars in this thesis and I learnt them from you! First time I tried to assembly a lateral flow strip I felt like “uf, I don’t want to repeat this never again” and look, now I’m writing a thesis focused on that. Probably I’ve cut more than a million paper strips with the guillotine, and that’s not an exaggeration. Thank you for your patience these days, for the time you spent teaching me in the lab and for your friendship. Now, I’d like to send my thankfulness to the other side of the ocean, to New Orleans. Dr. Diane A. Blake and her collaborators, Dr. Grace A. Jairo and Dr. Robert C. Blake II, who participated in the development of lateral flow strips for the detection of uranium, thank you for this great opportunity and for all the support given. Now closer, in the University of Girona, I’d like to thank LEPAMAP group, Dr. Pere Mutjé and Israel González, for their collaboration in the inclusion of carbon nanofibers in lateral flow. Also thanks to Dr. Neus Domingo and Christina Stefani, from AFM group in ICN2, who also participated in that project. Thanks to Dr. Giuseppe Palleschi, from Tor Vergata, and Tribidasari A. Ivandini, from Jakarta, for their collaboration in the iridium oxide nanoparticles projects. Thanks to Dr. Giulio Rosati for his kindness and friendship, hoping to collaborate in a near future. And finally, a special mention to Dr. Dag Bremnes, who sadly passed away last year; your memory will not be forgotten; thank you for everything you taught me about imaging and data treatment. Thanks to the Electron Microscopy Unit in ICN2, Belén Ballesteros, Marcos Rosado, Elzbieta Pach and Francisco Javier Belarre, for all their support and patience during these years. Also thanks to Javiez Saiz, from ICN2 Instrumental Core Research Facilities, and to Juan Luis Marte, ICP-MS technician. I’m thankfull for all the people I’ve meet in Nanobioelectronics and Biosensors group. I want to start with the people I met when I was an undergraduate student (forgive me if I forget someone): Deniz, Hassan, Anna F., Lenka, Serdar, Jihane, Yuki, Adaris, Maria, Claudio, Ali, Gisele, Sevinç, Mariana, Wissem, Moneim, Amal, Charlene, Flavio, Marisol, Carmen, Miquel, Alex Ch., Helena, Sandrine, Briza, Edén and Luis. Thank you all for the moments we spent together. Now, the people who came to the group while my master thesis: Andrzej, Jędrzej, Houda, Loubna, Thiago, Giulia, Alessandra, Gravagnoulo, Dun-Wein, Natalia, Hamed, Tina, Peng, Jarinya, Livia, Fabio, Erhan, Daniel H., Oana, Veronika, Victor, David, Marta, Misha, Patricia and Wiyogo. Thanks to all of you! And special thanks to Alessandra and Wiyogo with whom I spent many hours working together in our projects. And, in case the list didn’t seem long enough, here comes the people I’ve meet during the PhD: Robert, Héctor, Hoda, Abdellatif, Ichrak, MªÁngeles, Recep, Esma, Luiza, Jahir, Ruslán, Irene, Antoni, Dalia, Monica, Margherita, Marialuisa, Aida, Juan, Christian, Pablo, Emma, Nopchulee, Dee, Águeda, Gelo, Julio, Petr, Gina, Denise, Alba, Javi, Adrià, Andrea, Sonia, Maddalena, Marc Bo., Marc Ba., Müller, Bernardo, Celia, Carla, Karla, Aleksandra, Xinyi, Lei, Qiuyue, Lorenzo, Bhawna, Mohga, Niloufar, Golay, Caterina, Anna T., José Fran, Enric, Amadeo, Carme, Marta, Jiri, Somayeh, Emily, Mohammad, Sabba, Jülide and the Graphenica Team, Carlos and Laura. Thank you all!! Andrea, you were my first student and I’m glad we met again when you came back for your TFG; keep your motivation and you’ll be a great scientist. Héctor, I’ll never forget the days I spent with you and your strong passion, keep it and you’ll go far (if you lose your fear to fly, it will be literally far). Gelo, if you read this, remember our promise, we should finish together the PhD this year! Bhawna, Lorenzo, Carme and Mohga, your thesis are the next so I wish you all the best and good luck, “our generation” is ending so thank you for sharing these years with me! José Fran, I keep really good memories from when we worked together doing lateral flow strips with real blood, I learnt a lot of “bio” things from you and spent many good moments together, thank you!! Amadeo, I also enjoyed working with you, your motivation pushed the experiments I thought that never would work and succeed, keep that motivation always with and thank you for all the funny moments.