Current Advances in Semiconductor Nanomaterial-Based Photoelectrochemical Biosensing

Abstract

Photoelectrochemical (PEC) analysis is a new detection technique developed in recent years, which has the advantages of high sensitivity, low background signal and desirable selectivity, obtaining the great progress in sensing applications. Semiconductor nanomaterials with excellent photoelectric activity have played a vital role in the construction of PEC sensing platform. Thus, this Review introduces the recent advances of semiconductor nanomaterials-based PEC analysis, and describes the typical PEC sensing strategies. Some representative nanomaterials, including metallic oxides, metallic sulfides, graphitic carbon nitride, transition-metal dichalcogenides and quantum dots, are summarized for advanced PEC devices, as well as their applications in nucleic acid analysis, immunoassays, cell detection, protein and enzyme sensing, and small biomolecule monitoring. Finally, some future opportunities and challenges of PEC biosensing are also discussed.

Keywords: biosensors; nanostructures; photoelectrochemistry; sensing strategy.