title: Carbon nanomaterials in biosensors: should you use nanotubes or graphene?
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Australian Key Centre for Microscopy & Microanalysis, The University of Sydney, Madsen Building (F09), NSW, Sydney 2006, Australia.
authors.forename: Wenrong
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Kyle R
authors.initials: KR
authors.lastname: Ratinac
authors.forename: Simon P
authors.initials: SP
authors.lastname: Ringer
authors.forename: Pall
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Thordarson
authors.forename: J Justin
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Gooding
authors.forename: Filip
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Braet
mesh_terms: D015374:Biosensing Techniques; D002244:Carbon / Q000737:chemistry*; D037742:Nanotubes, Carbon / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D037742:Nanotubes, Carbon; D002244:Carbon