Prospects of Nanomaterials in Biosensors

Abstract

Nanomaterials, the building blocks of nanotechnology, possess important physical properties such as particle aggregation, photoemission, electrical and heat conductivities, and chemical properties like catalytic activities. On the basis of such unique properties, nanomaterials have received much attention from scientists and researchers in different areas of biomedical sciences such as biomolecule detection, sensing applications, gene delivery, clinical diagnostics, etc. This review focuses on different types of nanomaterials including their synthesis, properties, conjugation with biomolecules, and their biosensing applications.

Keywords:

• Biosensors
• nanomaterials
• gold nanoparticles
• carbon nanotubes
• DNA sensors
• immunosensors

We thank Dr. Vikram Kumar, Director, National Physical Laboratory, New Delhi, for his interest in this work. Pratibha Pandey is thankful to University Grants Commission (UGC), India, for the award of the Senior Research Fellowship. We also thank S.K. Arya and all members of BECPRG for interesting discussions. Financial support received under the DBT sponsored projects BT/PR7667/MED/14/1057/2006 and DST project ID/SEN/SI/03.