A Novel Magnetoelastic Nanobiosensor for Highly Sensitive Detection of Atrazine

Here, we firstly report a wireless magnetoelastic (ME) nanobiosensor, based on ME materials and gold nanoparticles (AuNPs), for highly sensitive detection of atrazine employing the competitive immunoassay. In response to a time-varying magnetic field, the ME material longitudinally vibrates at its resonance frequency which can be affected by its mass loading. The layer of AuNPs coating on the ME material contributes to its biocompatibility, stability, and sensitivity. The atrazine antibody was oriented immobilized on the AuNPs-coated ME material surface through protein A, improving the nanobiosensor’s performance. Atomic force microscope (AFM) analysis proved that the immobilization of atrazine antibody was successful. Furthermore, to enhance the sensitivity, atrazine–albumin conjugate (Atr–BSA) was induced to compete with atrazine for binding with atrazine antibody, amplifying the signal response. The resonance frequency shift is inversely and linearly proportional to the logarithm of atrazine concentrations ranging from 1 ng/mL to 100 μg/mL, with the sensitivity of 3.43 Hz/μg mL(−1) and the detection limit of 1 ng/mL, which is significantly lower than the standard established by US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The experimental results indicated that the ME nanobiosensor displayed strong specificity and stability toward atrazine. This study provides a new convenient method for rapid, selective, and highly sensitive detection of atrazine, which has implications for its applications in water quality monitoring and other environmental detection fields.