New Insights toward Efficient Charge-Separation Mechanism for High-Performance Photoelectrochemical Aptasensing: Enhanced Charge-Carrier Lifetime via Coupling Ultrathin MoS₂ Nanoplates with Nitrogen-Doped Graphene Quantum Dots

Abstract

Deeply understanding the internal mechanism of the photoelectrohemical (PEC) process is conducive to fabricate high-performance PEC biosensors. In this work, we proposed a new insight toward an efficient charge-separation mechanism in high-performance PEC biosensors. Specifically, we disclosed that the lifetimes of photogenerated charge carriers of ultrathin MoS₂ nanosheets could be prolonged by approximately millisecond time scales after a proper mole ratio of NGQDs were coupled, leading to the promoted charge separation and a giant photocurrent signal magnification. Benefiting from the dramatic signal amplification and the introduction of acetamiprid aptamer, subfemtomolar level detection of acetamiprid is achieved, which makes our strategy among the most sensitive electronic approaches for PEC-based monitoring of targets. This study was beneficial to further understand the charge-separation mechanism in PEC biosensing, which paved the way for the development of more efficient PEC biosensors.