Computational Simulation of a Surface Plasmonic Resonance Biosensor for β2-Microglobulin Based on Electrolyte-Gated Graphene

Biosensors have emerged as a rapidly evolving area of research, offering transformative potential across biomedical diagnostics, environmental monitoring, and pharmaceutical applications. Among the diverse range of biosensing technologies, graphene-based surface plasmonic resonance (SPR) biosensors have attracted particular interest due to their exceptional sensitivity, scalability for mass production, and cost-effective fabrication processes. This study explores the operational principles and current design methodologies of graphene-based SPR biosensors, with a special emphasis on the role of electrolyte gating and its impact on sensor performance. Furthermore, the influence of graphene’s quantum capacitance is investigated as a critical parameter for improving the accuracy and reliability of performance predictions in the proposed sensor configuration. Computational analysis of sensitivity and key performance metrics was conducted. Notably, key performance metrics of the sensor improved upon incorporating quantum capacitance effects into the simulation framework. At a β2-microglobulin concentration of 0.00118 g/L, the sensitivity increased to 174 GHz·g/L, the figure of merit reached 0.55 L/g, the quality factor was 0.01, the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) rose to 0.008, and the detection accuracy (DA) reached 0.08 L/THz, demonstrating the significant impact of quantum capacitance on the sensor’s performance. These findings highlight the potential of quantum-electrostatic considerations to enhance the precision and efficacy of graphene-based SPR biosensors, paving the way for the development of next-generation biosensing platforms with improved analytical capabilities. Unlike conventional graphene SPR biosensors, which primarily detect refractive index changes near the graphene surface, our model explicitly considers the electrostatic effect of biomolecules on graphene’s Fermi energy. By modelling β2-microglobulin as a charged species, we compute the resulting electric double layer and incorporate quantum capacitance in series. This amplifies the charge-induced modulation of graphene’s optical conductivity, and, combined with a graphene perfect absorber design, leads to enhanced plasmonic resonance shifts. Consequently, our approach achieves higher sensitivity and more precise detection of biomolecular interactions compared to traditional simulations.