Abstract
The investigation of lipid films for the construction of biosensors has recently given the opportunity to manufacture devices to selectively detect a wide range of food toxicants, environmental pollutants, and compounds of clinical interest. Biosensor miniaturization using nanotechnological tools has provided novel routes to immobilize various “receptors” within the lipid film. This chapter reviews and exploits platforms in biosensors based on lipid membrane technology that are used in food, environmental, and clinical chemistry to detect various toxicants. Examples of applications are described with an emphasis on novel systems, new sensing techniques, and nanotechnology-based transduction schemes. The compounds that can be monitored are insecticides, pesticides, herbicides, metals, toxins, antibiotics, microorganisms, hormones, dioxins, etc.
Highlights
The early 1960’s attempts to reconstitute lipid bilayers in vitro gradually established a lipid membrane technology path, which is quite intriguing, in the sense that the dynamic and complex nature of biological membranes could be simulated with a lipid solution, some skill and a set of affordable instrumentation, yet highly demanding in expertise when the extremely fragile lipid bilayer produced, freely suspended between two electrolyte interfaces, should remain intact for the duration of an experiment [1]
The number of devices based on lipid membranes that were used to monitor food toxicants, environmental pollutants, and compounds of clinical interest has increased tremendously for the last two decades
The construction of stabilized lipid film-based biosensors that are not prone to electrical or mechanical shock and are stable outside an electrolyte solution has been the investigation of a number of reports; these investigations will provide devices that can be commercialized due to their practical applications
Summary
The early 1960’s attempts to reconstitute lipid bilayers in vitro gradually established a lipid membrane technology path, which is quite intriguing, in the sense that the dynamic and complex nature of biological membranes could be simulated with a lipid solution, some skill and a set of affordable instrumentation, yet highly demanding in expertise when the extremely fragile lipid bilayer produced, freely suspended between two electrolyte interfaces, should remain intact for the duration of an experiment [1]. To represent complex platforms, such as tethered bilayers [11], unanchored (Figure 4b) [25] or anchored membranes (Figure 4c) [17] on electrode surfaces, metal-supported membranes [25], polymer supported bilayers [26], or high density biosensor arrays [27] These approximations can lead to misestimating, unless interfacial molecular structure and hydration are taken into account [10]. Any change of electrical potential, surface tension, surface charge density, etc., may increase the free energy of the system, leading to molecular re-arrangement propagating to rupture [35]; the former does not affect membrane functionality critically but the latter is catastrophic This implies a very careful trade-off between sensitivity and analytical range: Extremely sensitive biosensors work reliably in narrow analytical ranges [1]. In applications that may require broad detection ranges (e.g., environmental monitoring), the sensitivity level should be compromised
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