Composite materials based on ormosil for the construction of electrochemical sensors and biosensors

Abstract

Sol-gel process has gained tremendous attention in past decades for the preparation of pure and composite material for numerous applications. Organically modified sol-gel glasses (ormosils) have hybrid properties of rigid inorganic silica matrix and organic functionalities. Ormosils provide ambient environment for bio-molecules encapsulation and such systems have been used widely for biosensor applications. Biological elements including enzymes, antibodies, antigens, DNA, whole cells, tissues, proteins, biologically derived material, and biomimetic materials provide the possibility of biological recognition to the device and transducer to detect the biological signals with the help of associated electronics and software to amplify these signals into a readable form for the user. In this review we report on the formation of sol-gel based composite materials primarily on ormosil along with carbon nano tubes, metal nano particles, mediators, inorganic complexes, polymers, ionomers and biological materials and cite the electrochemical sensor/biosensor system based on it.