UC Riverside UC Riverside Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Development of Nanofiber and Surface Plasmon Resonance Sensors for VOCs, Biochemical, and Bacterial Analysis Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/04t6c00w Author Tran, Kelvin Publication Date 2020 License https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ 4.0 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA RIVERSIDE Development of Nanofiber and Surface Plasmon Resonance Sensors for VOCs, Biochemical, and Bacterial Analysis A Dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Environmental Toxicology by Kelvin Tran March 2020 Dissertation Committee: Dr. Quan Cheng, Chairperson Dr. Wenwan Zhong Dr. Ashok Mulchandani Copyright by Kelvin Tran 2020 The Dissertation of Kelvin Tran is approved: ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ Committee Chairperson University of California, Riverside Acknowledgements Personal Acknowledgement I would like to thank my advisor Prof. Jason Quan Cheng. Dr. Cheng has been supportive of me since I joined the lab as an undergraduate. I had joined the lab to experience academic research and the process of sensor development. I am grateful for the mentorship and guidance he provided. The freedom in the direction of the research that he encourages his students to partake allows us to learn and experience how to plan and implement experimental designs. While I was constantly focused on unexpected results, Dr Cheng would always encourage to think about the big picture and to approach the problem from a different angle. This mentality helped me stay sane and focused during times where there were little to no progress. I am thankful for his patience for there were several times where I had made mistakes, or my projects met dead ends. During these crisis, Dr. Cheng would always have time to examine the situation and give suggestions to overcome of these issues. I would like to thank my mentor, Andrew Burris, for his mentorship when I first join the lab as an undergraduate and got me started on my first project that continued throughout my first year in this program. He is a great teacher and friend who has taught me a lot about research and optimization. Together we had published a paper that is detailed in chapter 2. I would also thank all the group members of Cheng lab, past and present, for their contributions and discussions. It was a joy working with this group of motivated and helpful individuals who are willing to set aside time to help or discuss about research. iv Copyrights Acknowledgements The text and figures in Chapter 2 of this dissertation, in part, are a reprint of the material as it appears in: Burris, A. J., et al. Tunable Enhancement of a Graphene/Polyaniline/Poly (ethylene oxide) Composite Electrospun Nanofiber Gas Sensor. Journal of Analysis and Testing 2017, 1, 2, 12. The co-author listed in that publication, Andrew J. Burris, outlined the experimental design, fabricated the electrospinning setup, assembled the gas analyte testing chamber, and conducted the principle component analysis. The co-author listed in that publication, Prof. Quan Cheng, directed and supervised the research which forms the basis for Chapter 2. v \ This dissertation is dedicated to my family for their constant patience, love, support, and encouragement. I am thankful for my family who have encourage and supported me to pursue my dreams. A special thanks to my late grandmother who had always supported all her grandchildren to pursue our individual happiness, we all miss you very much. vi ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Development of Nanofiber and Surface Plasmon Resonance Sensors for VOCs, Biochemical, and Bacterial Analysis by Kelvin Tran Doctor of Philosophy, Graduate Program in Environmental Toxicology University of California, Riverside, March 2020 Dr. Quan Cheng, Chairperson It is important to monitor potential exposure to various chemicals and toxicants that may adversely affect both human and environmental health. Biosensors have been developed to identify and quantify these analytes of interest in early warning systems and diagnosis devices. This dissertation implements nanomaterials, such as nanofibers and nanoparticles, into the biological recognition element of a biosensor for selectively and sensitively to detect trace analytes in either gas, liquid, or solid phases. This dissertation is an agglomeration of several different projects that investigates the novel applications of nanomaterials into biosensor designs with two major application focuses: nanofibers and surface plasmon resonance (SPR) The first half of this dissertation focuses on the application of nanofiber surfaces for sensor developments. The nanofibers were fabricated through electrospinning and incorporated into various sensor designs. The first project develops polyaniline nanofibers into a chemiresistor sensor for sensitive detection of VOCs (small chain alcohols) by employing variants of reduced graphene oxides. The second project applies the nanofiber property of high vii surface area to volume ratio to maximize surface adsorption of EDTA-functionalized silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) as the biorecognition element of this sensor. The EDTA- AgNPs formulates a nickel ion bridge for selective capture and release of NTA and His tagged proteins that can be detected through fluorescent spectroscopy. The second half of this dissertation transitions into the application of surface plasmon resonance for the development of biosensor signal transducers. The third project focused on combining the potential of 3D printing with gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) to create a novel integrated localized SPR (LSPR) sensor surface capable of sensitive protein detection. The synthesis of gold nanoparticles in-situ on a 3D printed prism surface enables the fabrication of a biosensor device for the disposable field of site usage with qualities comparable performances with sensors using commercial optical prisms. The last project focuses on developing an SPR experimental model of a double lipid bilayer membrane. This model mimics the unique structure of the double lipid bilayer membrane system found in the chloroplast, mitochondria, and gram-negative bacteria. This novel experimental model combined with SPR analysis creates a biosensor platform that enables the interrogation of chemical and protein interactions at interfaces such as the gram-negative bacteria cell wall and membrane system. viii Table of Contents ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION ......................................................................... vii Table of Contents ............................................................................................................... ix List of Figures .................................................................................................................... xi List of Tables .................................................................................................................... xv Chapter 1: Electrospinning, Plasmonic Materials, and Lipid Bilayers for Sensor Interface of Chemical Analytes and Environmental Toxins. ............................................................. 1 1.1 Introduction. ........................................................................................................................... 1 1.2 Biosensor. .............................................................................................................................. 2 1.3 Nanofibers. ........................................................................................................................... 11 1.4 3D Printing. .......................................................................................................................... 17 1.5 Surface plasmon resonance. ................................................................................................. 22 1.6 Lipid Membrane Modeling. ................................................................................................. 29 1.7 Dissertation Scope. .............................................................................................................. 32 Chapter 2: Electrospun Nanofiber and Drop-Cast Film Sensors of Tunable Graphene/Polyaniline/Poly(ethylene oxide) Composites ................................................. 50 2.1 Introduction. ......................................................................................................................... 50 2.2 Experimental Detail. ............................................................................................................ 52 2.3 Results and Discussion. ....................................................................................................... 57 2.4 Conclusion. .......................................................................................................................... 70 Chapter 3: Silver-EDTA Nanoparticle Decorated PVA Nanofibers for Reversible Capture and Quantification of Proteins .......................................................................................... 76 3.1 Introduction. ......................................................................................................................... 76 3.2 Experimental Details. ..........................................................................................................