Amino acids (AAs) are vital biomolecules and important biomarkers for disease diagnosis, motivating the development of sensitive and selective detection methods. Among them, lysine (LYS) plays a crucial role in protein synthesis, and abnormal concentrations are linked to disorders such as anemia, neurological agitation, and cardiovascular disease. Therefore, the accurate detection of LYS is essential. Two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenides (2D TMDCs) have emerged as promising receptor-free biosensing platforms due to their direct charge transfer capability upon biomolecular adsorption. However, pristine TMDCs often exhibit limited sensitivity and selectivity. Here, we functionalized monolayer WS2 (1L-WS2) with platinum nanoparticles (Pt NPs) using atomic layer deposition (ALD) to enhance biosensing performance. Pt NPs induced n-type doping of the WS2 channel, thereby improving its sensitivity to LYS. The Pt NPs predominantly exhibited (111) facets, enabling stronger covalent or hydrogen bonding interactions with amino acids. The Pt-functionalized WS2 (Pt-WS2) biosensors showed markedly improved sensitivity and selectivity toward LYS compared with pristine WS2. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations further revealed increased adsorption energy and charge transfer of LYS on Pt-WS2, corroborating the experimental results. These findings highlight metal NP functionalization as an effective strategy to advance 2D TMDC-based biosensors for practical applications.
Yoo et al. (Mon,) studied this question.