From diagnosis of life-threatening diseases to detection of biological agents in warfare or terrorist attacks, biosensors are becoming a critical part of modern life. Many recent biosensors have incorporated carbon nanotubes as sensing elements, while a growing body of work has begun to do the same with the emergent nanomaterial graphene, which is effectively an unrolled nanotube. With this widespread use of carbon nanomaterials in biosensors, it is timely to assess how this trend is contributing to the science and applications of biosensors. This Review explores these issues by presenting the latest advances in electrochemical, electrical, and optical biosensors that use carbon nanotubes and graphene, and critically compares the performance of the two carbon allotropes in this application. Ultimately, carbon nanomaterials, although still to meet key challenges in fabrication and handling, have a bright future as biosensors.

Carbon Nanomaterials in Biosensors: Should You Use Nanotubes or Graphene?

Nanostructuring electrodes with carbon nanotubes: A review on electrochemistry and applications for sensing

Sorption of divalent metal ions from aqueous solution by carbon nanotubes: A review

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) exhibit a unique combination of excellent mechanical, electrical and electrochemical properties, which has stimulated increasing interest in the application of CNTs as components in (bio)sensors. This review highlights various design methodologies for CNT-based biosensors and their employment for the detection of a number of biomolecules. In addition, recent developments in the fields of CNT-based chemiresistors and chemically sensitive field-effect transistors are presented. After a critical discussion of the factors that currently limit the practical use of CNT-based biosensors, the review concludes with an outline of potential future applications for CNTs in biology and medicine.

Biosensors based on carbon nanotubes

Discoveries of new materials have significant impact on development of new methods and instrumentation for chemical analysis. Based on 104 references, this article illustrates a growing number of applications of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) in analytical chemistry. The largest numbers of reported applications concern design of novel gas sensors, voltammetry, enzymatic biosensors, immunosensors and DNA probes. The sorptive properties of CNTs are also employed for analytical purposes in various ways.

Analytical applications of carbon nanotubes : a review

Simultaneous determination of dopamine and serotonin on a glassy carbon electrode coated with a film of carbon nanotubes

Mercury-free simultaneous determination of cadmium and lead at a glassy carbon electrode modified with multi-wall carbon nanotubes

Simultaneous determination of lead(II) and cadmium(II) at a diacetyldioxime modified carbon paste electrode by differential pulse stripping voltammetry.

Voltammetric behavior and determination of estrogens at Nafion-modified glassy carbon electrode in the presence of cetyltrimethylammonium bromide

A nanostructured film electrode, a multi-wall carbon nanotubes (MWNT)-modified glassy carbon electrode (GCE), is described for the simultaneous determination of guanine and adenine. The properties of the MWNT-modified GCE were investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and cyclic voltammetry. The oxidation peak currents of guanine and adenine increased significantly at the MWNT-modified GCE in contrast to those at the bare GCE. The experimental parameters were optimized and a direct electrochemical method for the simultaneous determination of guanine and adenine was proposed. Using the MWNT-modified GCE, a sensitive and direct electrochemical technique for the measurement of native DNA was also developed, and the value of (G+C)/(A+T) of HCl-digested DNA was detected.

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Kangbing Wu

Papers

Simultaneous determination of dopamine and serotonin on a glassy carbon electrode coated with a film of carbon nanotubes

Mercury-free simultaneous determination of cadmium and lead at a glassy carbon electrode modified with multi-wall carbon nanotubes

Simultaneous determination of lead(II) and cadmium(II) at a diacetyldioxime modified carbon paste electrode by differential pulse stripping voltammetry.

Voltammetric behavior and determination of estrogens at Nafion-modified glassy carbon electrode in the presence of cetyltrimethylammonium bromide

Direct electrochemistry of DNA, guanine and adenine at a nanostructured film-modified electrode.