Engineering carbon nanotubes for sensitive viral detection

Muhammad Ovais; Min You; Jalal Ahmad; Ridha Djellabi; Arbab Ali; Mahmood Hassan Akhtar; Manzar Abbas; Chunying Chen

doi:10.1016/j.trac.2022.116659

Engineering carbon nanotubes for sensitive viral detection

Trends Analyt Chem. 2022 Aug:153:116659. doi: 10.1016/j.trac.2022.116659. Epub 2022 Apr 30.

Authors

Muhammad Ovais^{1

2}, Min You^{1

3}, Jalal Ahmad⁴, Ridha Djellabi⁵, Arbab Ali¹, Mahmood Hassan Akhtar⁶, Manzar Abbas⁷, Chunying Chen^{1

2

8}

Affiliations

¹ CAS Key Laboratory for Biomedical Effects of Nanomaterials and Nanosafety, CAS Center for Excellence in Nanoscience, National Center for Nanoscience and Technology, Beijing, 100190, PR China.
² University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, PR China.
³ Wenzhou Institute, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wenzhou, 325001, Zhejiang, PR China.
⁴ Department of Chemistry, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, PR China.
⁵ Università degli Studi di Milano, Dipartimento di Chimica, Via Gogi 19, 20133, Milano, Italy.
⁶ Department of Chemistry, School of Applied Sciences and Humanities, National University of Technology, Islamabad, 42000, Pakistan.
⁷ Institute for Molecules and Materials, Radboud University Nijmegen Heyendaalseweg 135, 6525, AJ Nijmegen, the Netherlands.
⁸ GBA National Institute for Nanotechnology Innovation, Guangzhou, 510700, PR China.

Abstract

Viral infections have been proven a severe threat to human beings, and the pandemic of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) has become a societal health concern, including mental distress and morbidity. Therefore, the early diagnosis and differentiation of viral infections are the prerequisite for curbing the local and global spread of viruses. To this end, carbon nanotubes (CNTs) based virus detection strategies are developed that provide feasible alternatives to conventional diagnostic techniques. Here in this review, an overview of the design and engineering of CNTs-based sensors for virus detection is summarized, followed by the nano-bio interactions used in developing biosensors. Then, we classify the viral sensors into covalently engineered CNTs, non-covalently engineered CNTs, and size-tunable CNTs arrays for viral detection, based on the type of CNTs-based nano-bio interfaces. Finally, the current challenges and prospects of CNTs-based sensors for virus detection are discussed.

Keywords: CNTs-based sensors; COVID-19; Carbon nanotubes engineering; Nano-bio interactions; Virus detection.

Publication types

Review