Abstract
Biochemical analysis in reliable, low-toxicity, and real-time manners are essentially important for exploring and unraveling biological events and related mechanisms. Silicon nanomaterial-based sensors and probes have potentiality to satisfy the above-mentioned requirements. Herein, we present an overview of the recent significant improvement in large-scale and facile synthesis of high-quality silicon nanomaterials and the research progress of biosensing and bioimaging analysis based on silicon nanomaterials. We especially illustrate the advanced applications of silicon nanomaterials in the field of ultrasensitive biomolecular detection and dynamic biological imaging analysis, with a focus on real-time and long-term detection. In the final section of this review, we discuss the major challenges and promising development in this domain.
Highlights
During the past decades, functional nanomaterials [e.g., fluorescent semiconductor quantum dots (QDs), graphene, carbon nanodots, gold/silver nanoparticles (Au/Ag NPs), etc.] have been intensively employed for the design of various biosensors and probes, owing to their excellent physicochemical properties (Jung et al, 2010; Holzinger et al, 2014; Tilmaciu and Morris, 2015)
Several economic and facile synthetic strategies have been developed for the preparation of strong fluorescent silicon nanoparticles (SiNPs) with controllable colors in facile and large-quantity manners
Current challenge remains that the exact photoluminescence mechanism of fluorescent silicon nanostructures is controversially to some extent, which requires thorough elucidation in the future
Summary
Laboratory of Nanoscale Biochemical Analysis, Institute of Functional Nano and Soft Materials and Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Carbon-Based Functional Materials and Devices, Collaborative Innovation Center of Suzhou Nano Science and Technology, Soochow University, Suzhou, China. Reviewed by: Ruoxue Yan, University of California, Riverside, United States Xiaoji Xie, Nanjing Tech University, China Yiqing Lu, Macquarie University, Australia. Biochemical analysis in reliable, low-toxicity, and real-time manners are essentially important for exploring and unraveling biological events and related mechanisms. Silicon nanomaterial-based sensors and probes have potentiality to satisfy the above-mentioned requirements. We present an overview of the recent significant improvement in large-scale and facile synthesis of high-quality silicon nanomaterials and the research progress of biosensing and bioimaging analysis based on silicon nanomaterials. We especially illustrate the advanced applications of silicon nanomaterials in the field of ultrasensitive biomolecular detection and dynamic biological imaging analysis, with a focus on real-time and long-term detection. In the final section of this review, we discuss the major challenges and promising development in this domain
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