Functional nanomaterials and nanoprobes for amplified biosensing

Abstract The introduction of functional nanomaterials into biosensing fields advanced analytical chemistry and opened a series of concepts for design of new analytical and tracing tools. It not only improved the stability and biocompatibility of biosensing interfaces, also has greatly enhanced the biosensing response to recognition event, thus met the need for detection of trace amounts of a wide variety of analytes and acquisition of ultraweak biological signals, and promoted the development of life science, biomedicine, food and environmental science. Different nanomaterials have been functionalized to modify the biosensing interfaces for accelerating the electron transfer, lowing the activation energy, and/or concentrating the target analytes, or to act as nanoprobes for labeling the recognition molecules, in which the nanomaterials can act as catalysts, enzyme mimics, signal emitters or carriers for loading of signal molecules to produce amplified signals. By coupling with the specificity of biological recognition events, the functional nanomaterials and nanoprobes have been quickly developed for highly sensitive and specific biosensing both in vitro and in vivo. This review focuses on the significant advances in use of functional nanomaterials for design of amplified biosensing strategies. The main works in this group are also summarized to expound the views and research thinking in the amplified biosensing.