All-organic semiconductors for electrochemical biosensors : an overview of recent progress in material design

Jonathan Hopkins, Kristina Fidanovski, Antonio Lauto, Damia Mawad

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

31 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Organic semiconductors remain of major interest in the field of bioelectrochemistry for their versatility in chemical and electrochemical behavior. These materials have been tailored using organic synthesis for use in cell stimulation, sustainable energy production, and in biosensors. Recent progress in the field of fully organic semiconductor biosensors is outlined in this review, with a particular emphasis on the synthetic tailoring of these semiconductors for their intended application. Biosensors ultimately function on the basis of a physical, optical or electrochemical change which occurs in the active material when it encounters the target analyte. Electrochemical biosensors are becoming increasingly popular among organic semiconductor biosensors, owing to their good detection performances, and simple operation. The analyte either interacts directly with the semiconductor material in a redox process or undergoes a redox process with a moiety such as an enzyme attached to the semiconductor material. The electrochemical signal is then transduced through the semiconductor material. The most recent examples of organic semiconductor biosensors are discussed here with reference to the material design of polymers with semiconducting backbones, specifically conjugated polymers, and polymer semiconducting dyes. We conclude that direct interaction between the analyte and the semiconducting material is generally more sensitive and cost effective, despite being currently limited by the need to identify, and synthesize selective sensing functionalities. It is also worth noting the potential roles of highly-sensitive, organic transistor devices and small molecule semiconductors, such as the photochromic and redox active molecule spiropyran, as polymer pendant groups in future biosensor designs.
Original languageEnglish
Article number237
Number of pages8
JournalFrontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology
Volume7
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2019

Open Access - Access Right Statement

Copyright © 2019 Hopkins, Fidanovski, Lauto and Mawad. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

Keywords

  • biosensors
  • electrophysiology
  • organic semiconductors
  • polymers

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