14 - Carbon nanomaterials for sensing applications

Abstract

Carbon nanomaterials have been progressively employed for distinct sensing applications, owing to their meritorious attributes such as high thermal and electrical conductivity, electrocatalytic activity, biocompatibility, long-term chemical stability, easy functionalization, large specific surface area, and optical properties. The examples of carbon-based nanomaterials include graphene (GR), graphene oxide (GOx), fullerenes (C60), graphene quantum dots (GQDs), carbon quantum dots (CQDs), carbon nanofibers (CNFs), carbon nanodiamonds (CNDs), carbon black (CB), carbon nanohorns (CNHs), and single- or multiwalled carbon nanotubes (CNTs). These nanomaterials play a pivotal role in the sensor development and serve for a broad range of sensing application from the early diagnosis of cancer and monitoring cardiovascular disorders and infectious disease to metal ion detection. The introduction of carbonaceous materials to the fabrication of various sensor platforms such as electrochemical, optical, as well as piezoelectric sensors leads to the enhancement in their overall performance in terms of detectability, sensitivity, selectivity, specificity, and reproducibility. As an outcome, carbon nanomaterials have been boosting up a revolution for innumerable sensing applications with the development of point-of-care testing devices. In this chapter, we comprehensively reviewed the carbon nanomaterials and their applications in various sensor platforms by mainly focusing on the works published in the past 5years.