Anti-Biofouling Isoporous Silica-Micelle Membrane Enabling Drug Detection in Human Whole Blood

Direct electrochemical detection in human whole blood remains challenging due to electrode surface fouling and passivation by abundant biological substances. In this work we report that the isoporous silica-micelle membranes (designated as iSMM) can effectively function as antibiofouling layer for electrochemical detection of drug molecules in human whole blood without pretreatment. The iSMM possesses molecular sieving capacity, charge/lipophilicity selectivity, and preconcentration ability. Only small and neutral/lipophilic analytes can permeate the iSMM, be concentrated, and subsequently be detected at the underlying electrode. It is however impermeable to big sized substances and those small but charged and hydrophilic. We first investigated the molecular permeability of iSMM by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and then demonstrated its application in the quantitative determination of chloramphenicol (CAP) in the unprocessed human whole blood. The analytical sensitivity and long-term stability of iSMM based electrochemical sensors are apparently better than bare electrodes.