Nanostructured semiconductor based biochemical sensors

Abstract

Nanostructured materials possess better tunability of their properties compared to their bulk counterparts. These properties have opened up new avenues for fabricating highly sensitive, miniaturised and cost effective sensing devices. For the realisation of a rapid and easy to use immunosensor, nanostructured porous silicon/polyaniline heterostructure has been prepared electrochemically which provides label free, real time electrical detection with high sensitivity for biomolecules (mouse IgG/goat antimouse IgG) from whole serum. Nanostructured thin film SnO₂ sensors prepared by Langmuir Blodgett technique has been investigated for room temperature gas sensing under various chemically polluting ambiances (NH₃, H₂S, SO₂, CO, H₂, NO₂ and CH₄) using electrochemical methods which were able to detect specific gases at room temperature in the presence of other residual gases.

Keywords:

• Nanostructure
• Porous silicon biosensor
• SnO₂ gas sensor

Acknowledgements

I would like to express my sincere thanks to my collaborators, Dr Sipra Choudhury and Ms K. G. Girija, BARC, India for providing the SnO₂ thin films and the electronic alarm units respectively for the realisation of gas sensor.