Abstract
This article critically discusses the latest advances in the use of voltammetric, amperometric, potentiometric, and impedimetric biosensors for forensic analysis. Highlighted examples that show the advantages of these tools to develop methods capable of detecting very small concentrations of analytes and provide selective determinations through analytical responses, without significant interferences from other components of the samples, are presented and discussed, thus stressing the great versatility and utility of electrochemical biosensors in this growing research field. To illustrate this, the determination of substances with forensic relevance by using electrochemical biosensors reported in the last five years (2015–2019) are reviewed. The different configurations of enzyme or affinity biosensors used to solve analytical problems related to forensic practice, with special attention to applications in complex samples, are considered. Main prospects, challenges to focus, such as the fabrication of devices for rapid analysis of target analytes directly on-site at the crime scene, or their widespread use and successful applications to complex samples of interest in forensic analysis, and future efforts, are also briefly discussed.
Highlights
A broad spectrum of sciences is used in forensic investigations, with the objective of providing answers to questions of interest related to a crime or a civil action
SPCEs modified with polyamidoamine dendrimers (PAMAM), glutaraldehyde, chitosan, and AuNPs (Figure 4A) were employed for the immobilization of the specific aptamer, and the analytical response was obtained by measuring the electron transfer decrease of [Fe(CN)6 ]3−/4−
Enzyme and whole-cell biosensors, as well as affinity sensors, mainly aptasensors, and immunosensors and, more scarcely, nucleic acids or peptides biosensors, were used to solve a variety of analytical problems related to forensic practice
Summary
A broad spectrum of sciences is used in forensic investigations, with the objective of providing answers to questions of interest related to a crime or a civil action. Forensic analysis, which currently constitutes a significant branch of modern analytical chemistry, makes use of different techniques, including liquid and gas chromatography [1,2], spectroscopy [3], and electrochemistry [4] to obtain information that implies many important social and legal consequences. In this field, biosensors have become ideal tools for rapid initial screening and for sensitive determination of suspicious agents due to the biosensors’ great advantages of specificity, rapidity, and little sample manipulation [5].
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