Graphene-Based Optical and Electrochemical Biosensors: A Review

Abstract

The unexpected discovery of graphene and especially the follow-up explosion of interest in its properties and applications marked the beginning of a new carbon era. Graphene is a real two-dimensional crystal (one-atom-thick) with high crystal quality and quite unusual electronic properties, and has shown great promise in a variety of applications, such as field-effect transistors, photovoltaic devices, and biosensors. In addition to the properties that make graphene an excellent transducer material in biosensors, such as high electron transfer ability and specific surface area, several advantages of graphene over carbon nanotubes, one of its well-studied allotropes, are becoming apparent. Graphene shows super-quenching capability toward various organic dyes and quantum dots due to the long-range nanoscale resonance energy transfer. Graphene-based hybrid materials, especially nanoparticle-decorated graphene nanocomposites, have been widely used as electrode materials for the development of electrochemical biosensors. In this review, we outline the recent advances about the application of graphene-based materials in biosensors, with focus on fluorescence and electrochemical biosensors.

Keywords:

• Energy transfer
• Enzyme
• Graphene
• Nanocomposite
• Transducer

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 21075052, 21175057), the Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province (No. ZR2010BM030, ZR2010BQ019), the Development Environmental Protection Industry of Shandong Province, and the Science and Technology Key Plan Project of Shandong Province (No. 2010GSF10628).

Notes

^a Carcinoembryonic antigen.

^b Organophosphate pesticide.