title: Aluminum Nanoholes for Optical Biosensing.
abstract: Sub-wavelength diameter holes in thin metal layers can exhibit remarkable optical features that make them highly suitable for (bio)sensing applications. Either as efficient light scattering centers for surface plasmon excitation or metal-clad optical waveguides, they are able to form strongly localized optical fields that can effectively interact with biomolecules and/or nanoparticles on the nanoscale. As the metal of choice, aluminum exhibits good optical and electrical properties, is easy to manufacture and process and, unlike gold and silver, its low cost makes it very promising for commercial applications. However, aluminum has been scarcely used for biosensing purposes due to corrosion and pitting issues. In this short review, we show our recent achievements on aluminum nanohole platforms for (bio)sensing. These include a method to circumvent aluminum degradation--which has been successfully applied to the demonstration of aluminum nanohole array (NHA) immunosensors based on both, glass and polycarbonate compact discs supports--the use of aluminum nanoholes operating as optical waveguides for synthesizing submicron-sized molecularly imprinted polymers by local photopolymerization, and a technique for fabricating transferable aluminum NHAs onto flexible pressure-sensitive adhesive tapes, which could facilitate the development of a wearable technology based on aluminum NHAs.
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Sistemas Optoelectrónicos y Microtecnología (ISOM), ETSI Telecomunicación, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Ciudad Universitaria s/n, Madrid 28040, Spain. carlos.angulo.barrios@upm.es.|Departamento de Tecnología Fotónica y Bioingeniería (TFB), ETSI Telecomunicación, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Ciudad Universitaria s/n, Madrid 28040, Spain. carlos.angulo.barrios@upm.es.
authors.forename: Carlos Angulo
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Barrios
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Sistemas Optoelectrónicos y Microtecnología (ISOM), ETSI Telecomunicación, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Ciudad Universitaria s/n, Madrid 28040, Spain. victorcanalejas@isom.upm.es.
authors.forename: Víctor
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Canalejas-Tejero
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Química Analítica, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Ciudad Universitaria s/n, Madrid 28040, Spain. sherranz@quim.ucm.es.
authors.forename: Sonia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Herranz
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Química Analítica, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Ciudad Universitaria s/n, Madrid 28040, Spain. jurracar@quim.ucm.es.|CEI Campus Moncloa, UCM-UPM, Avda. Complutense s/n, Madrid 28040, Spain. jurracar@quim.ucm.es.
authors.forename: Javier
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Urraca
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Química Analítica, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Ciudad Universitaria s/n, Madrid 28040, Spain. mcmbondi@ucm.es.
authors.forename: María Cruz
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Moreno-Bondi
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Reconocimiento Molecular y Desarrollo Tecnológico (IDM), Departamento de Química, Universidad Politécnica de Valencia, Camino de Vera s/n, Valencia 46022, Spain. miavol@upvnet.upv.es.
authors.forename: Miquel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Avella-Oliver
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Reconocimiento Molecular y Desarrollo Tecnológico (IDM), Departamento de Química, Universidad Politécnica de Valencia, Camino de Vera s/n, Valencia 46022, Spain. amaquieira@qim.upv.es.
authors.forename: Ángel
authors.initials: Á
authors.lastname: Maquieira
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Reconocimiento Molecular y Desarrollo Tecnológico (IDM), Departamento de Química, Universidad Politécnica de Valencia, Camino de Vera s/n, Valencia 46022, Spain. rpuchades@qim.upv.es.
authors.forename: Rosa
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Puchades
mesh_terms: D000535:Aluminum / Q000737:chemistry*; D015374:Biosensing Techniques; D049329:Nanostructures / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D055668:Photochemical Processes; D011076:Polycarboxylate Cement / Q000737:chemistry; D020349:Surface Plasmon Resonance / Q000379:methods
chemical_list: D011076:Polycarboxylate Cement; C005506:polycarbonate; D000535:Aluminum
keywords: aluminum; metal nanoholes; molecularly imprinted polymer; nanohole arrays; nanopatterning; optical biosensing; photopolymerization; surface plasmon resonance; transfer printing