NANOMATERIALS IN ELECTROCHEMISTRY: APPLICATIONS IN SENSING AND

The detection of biological and chemical species is central to many areas of healthcare and the life sciences, ranging from uncovering and diagnosing disease to the discovery and screening of new drug molecules. Hence, the development of new devices that enable direct, sensitive, and rapid analysis of these species could impact humankind in significant ways. Devices based on nanomaterials are emerging as a powerful and general class of ultrasensitive sensors for the direct detection of biological and chemical species. [1,2] Central to detection is the signal transduction associated with selective recognition of a biological or chemical species. Nanostructures offer new and sometimes unique opportunities in this rich and interdisciplinary area of science and technology. The diameters of these nanostructures are comparable to the size of biological and chemical species being sensed, thus intuitively represent excellent primary transducers for producing signals that ultimately interface with macroscopic instruments. Metallic nanowires and nanostructured materials exhibit interesting properties that can be exploited for sensing. The investigation of biosensitive materials is a rapidly expanding field of research, dedicated for various applications in health-care industry, food quality control and environmental monitoring. Th