Fast and direct identification of SARS‐CoV‐2 variants via 2D InSe field‐effect transistors

• Published in: InfoMat Vol. 5; no. 2
• Main Authors: Xu, Duo, Li, Junji, Xiong, Yunhai, Li, Han, Yang, Jialin, Liu, Wenqiang, Jiang, Lianfu, Qu, Kairui, Zhao, Tong, Shi, Xinyu, Zhang, Shengli, Shan, Dan, Chen, Xiang, Zeng, Haibo
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Melbourne John Wiley & Sons, Inc 01.02.2023; Wiley
• Subjects: 2D InSe; Acids; Aluminum oxide; Atomic layer epitaxy; Carrier transport; Coronaviruses; COVID-19; Disease transmission; Field effect transistors; Genomes; Hybridization; Indium selenides; Mutation; Nucleic acids; Nucleotides; Proteins; SARS‐CoV‐2; Semiconductor devices; Sensors; Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2; single‐nucleotide variations; Transistors; trap states; Two dimensional materials; Viral diseases
• ISSN: 2567-3165; 2567-3165
• DOI: 10.1002/inf2.12398

As the COVID‐19 pandemic evolves and new variants emerge, the development of more efficient identification approaches of variants is urgent to prevent continuous outbreaks of SARS‐CoV‐2. Field‐effect transistors (FETs) with two‐dimensional (2D) materials are viable platforms for the detection of virus nucleic acids (NAs) but cannot yet provide accurate information on NA variations. Herein, 2D Indium selenide (InSe) FETs were used to identify SARS‐CoV‐2 variants. The device's mobility and stability were ensured by atomic layer deposition (ALD) of Al2O3. The resulting FETs exhibited sub‐fM detection limits ranging from 10–14  M to 10–8 M. The recognition of single‐nucleotide variations was achieved within 15 min to enable the fast and direct identification of two core mutations (L452R, R203M) in Delta genomes (p < 0.01). Such capability originated from the trap states in oxidized InSe (InSe1−xOx) after ALD, resulting in traps‐involved carrier transport responsive to the negative charges of NAs. In sum, the proposed approach might highly provide epidemiological information for timely surveillance of the COVID pandemic. Currently, transmissible SARS‐CoV‐2 variants continuously evolve due to the frequent occurrence of single‐nucleotide variations (SNVs). We develop 2D InSe FETs for fast and direct identification of SARS‐CoV‐2 variants. In addition to the sub‐fM detection limit, the bio‐FETs can directly recognize the difference between complementary and Delta variant nucleic acid sequences with SNVs. We contribute the capability to the oxidation of InSe (InSe1−xOx). Moreover, the trap states inside make the carrier transport of our bio‐FETs more sensitive to the EF shift from the negative charges of NA sequences.