Nanomaterials and Cross-Cutting Technologies for Fostering Smart Electrochemical Biosensors in the Detection of Chemical Warfare Agents

Fabiana Arduini

doi:10.3390/app11020720

Abstract

The smart, rapid, and customizable detection of chemical warfare agents is a huge issue for taking the proper countermeasures in a timely fashion. The printing techniques have established the main pillar to develop miniaturized electrochemical biosensors for onsite and fast detection of nerve and mustard agents, allowing for a lab on a chip in the chemical warfare agent sector. In the fast growth of novel technologies, the combination of miniaturized electrochemical biosensors with flexible electronics allowed for the delivery of useful wearable sensors capable of fast detection of chemical warfare agents. The wearable microneedle sensor array for minimally invasive continuous electrochemical detection of organophosphorus nerve agents, as well as the wearable paper-based origami functionalized with nanomaterials for mustard agents in the gas phase, represent two examples of the forefront devices developed in the chemical warfare agent detection field. This review will highlight the most promising electrochemical biosensors developed by exploiting nanomaterials and cross-cutting technologies for the fabrication of smart and sensitive electrochemical biosensors for the detection of chemical warfare agents.

Highlights

The electrochemical biosensor is defined as a chemical sensor constituted of a recognition element and an electrochemical transducer, in which the device is able to transform the biochemical information related to the interaction of the analyte with the recognition element into an electrochemically detectable signal [1]
The first biosensor applied in the defence field was developed by Guilbault et al in 1962 [2], in which two platinum electrodes were selected as the transducer and the cholinesterase enzyme as a biocomponent for nerve agent detection
The toxicity of nerve agents relies on their ability to irreversibly inhibit a key enzyme of nervous transmission, namely acetylcholinesterase, and this enzyme was selected as a biocomponent and immobilized on the electrochemical transducer

Summary

Introduction

The electrochemical biosensor is defined as a chemical sensor constituted of a recognition element and an electrochemical transducer, in which the device is able to transform the biochemical information related to the interaction of the analyte with the recognition element into an electrochemically detectable signal [1]. The other approach is based on the use of organophosphate hydrolase enzyme incubation, allowing for a faster measure than the one using a cholinesterase biosensor, able to hydrolyzed the organophosphorus compounds, detecting a nerve agent as the but substrate. Was measured in differential pulse voltammetry using a carbon black-modified electrode with improved sensitivity with respect to the bare electrode Under optimized conditions, this biosensor allowed for a linear range up to 80 mM and a detection limit of 12 μM of sulphur mustard. The effectiveness of this novel bioassay was successfully verified with the nitrogen mustard simulant bis(2-chloroethyl)amine and the sulphur mustard simulants, i.e., 2-chloroethyl ethyl sulphide and 2-chloroethyl phenyl sulphide [25], demonstrating the suitability of a novel biosensor for the detection of sulphur mustard

Printing Technologies to Deliver Disposable and Miniaturised Devices

Wearable-Based Biosensors as Cross-Cutting Devices

Conclusions