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Abstract
The detection techniques used in biosensors can be broadly classified into label-based and label-free. Label-based detection relies on the specific properties of labels for detecting a particular target. In contrast, label-free detection is suitable for the target molecules that are not labeled or the screening of analytes which are not easy to tag. Also, more types of label-free biosensors have emerged with developments in biotechnology. The latest developed techniques in label-free biosensors, such as field-effect transistors-based biosensors including carbon nanotube field-effect transistor biosensors, graphene field-effect transistor biosensors and silicon nanowire field-effect transistor biosensors, magnetoelastic biosensors, optical-based biosensors, surface stress-based biosensors and other type of biosensors based on the nanotechnology are discussed. The sensing principles, configurations, sensing performance, applications, advantages and restriction of different label-free based biosensors are considered and discussed in this review. Most concepts included in this survey could certainly be applied to the development of this kind of biosensor in the future.
Acknowledgements
We gratefully acknowledge the reviewers for their critical reading and scientific inputs. We would give thanks to Xiaoliang Tang, Pengwei Li, Jie Hu, Gang Li, Aoqun Jian and Qianqian Duan for their collaboration and help.
Declaration of interest
The authors report no conflict of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of this article. This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51105267, 91123036), the National Research Foundation for the Doctoral Program of Higher Education of China (Grant No. 20111402120007), Basic Research Priorities Program of Shanxi for Youths (Grant No. 2012021013-1), Shanxi Scholarship Council of China (under Grant No. 2010-030), the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (No. 2011M500542, 2012T50248) and the Shanxi Provincial Foundation for Returned Scholars.