Sensors as green tools in analytical chemistry

Abstract

This article comments on green aspects of (bio)chemical sensors for qualitative and quantitative analysis applications. First, the aspects that connect chemical sensors and biosensors with the main trends of green analytical chemistry are discussed. To continue, a set of paradigmatic examples of sustainable assays pertaining to the (bio)sensing field have been selected and explored in some of their variants. These are the use of a smartphone camera together with a microfluidic paper platform to perform colorimetric or fluorometric assays, the use of the portable glucose meter as transducer for a variety of (bio)assays different of glucose, or the coupling of sensor arrays with advanced chemometric processing for smart sensing (electronic noses and electronic tongues). • Relationships between chemical sensors and biosensors and green chemistry are discussed. • Paradigmatic example cases are shown with minimum use of resources. • First case is use of immobilized reagents in a paper substrate plus smartphone camera optical detection. • Second case is biosensing with use of the personal glucose monitor to determine species other than glucose. • Last case is chemical sensing using sensor arrays and advanced data treatment: electronic noses and tongues.