Metasurface design for determination of protein concentration in enzymatic reaction mixture

Abstract

In the paper a standard multiwell plate structure was utilized to determine the concentration of human serum albumin in water solutions and enzymatic reaction mixtures. This study marks the first application of the multiwell plate structure as a resonant metasurface unit cell through numerical simulation using the COMSOL Multiphysics software. By adjusting the operating parameters of the proposed multiwell plate (MWP) metasurface, resonance phenomena within the microwave range could be observed. The complex permittivity (CP) values of the tested solutions, obtained experimentally using the microwave dielectrometry method, were employed for the MWP metasurface modelling. The correspondence between the resonance frequency shifts of the MWP metasurface and the changes in CP values of the tested solutions was demonstrated. For the convenience of the protein concentration determination, the concentration calibration graph was proposed. Our approach enables the detection of protein concentration in the reaction mixture after 60 minutes duration of the enzymatic reaction course. The study demonstrated the customization of metasurface dimensions to enable interaction with electromagnetic waves at specific frequencies. The availability of standard multiwell plates in different sizes allows for testing solutions across various frequency ranges.