The World Scientific Encyclopedia of Nanomedicine and Bioengineering I

The following sections are included:

• Contents
• Preface

Noble metal (gold, silver, platinum, copper and palladium) nanostructures have been widely used in biomedical fields because of their self-therapeutic properties. In this chapter, we first discuss the self-therapeutic mechanisms of noble metal nanostructures as photosensitizer/radiosensitizer and as antimicrobial and anticancer agents. Subsequently, we summarize the applications of different noble metal nanostructures in phototherapy (photothermal therapy, photodynamic therapy (PDT) and chemthermotherapy) and radiotherapy. More importantly, this chapter highlights the newly emerging applications of the noble metal nanostructures as antimicrobial (antibacterial, antifungal and antiviral) agents and anticancer therapeutic agents in anti-angiogenesis and in the treatment of leukemia, breast cancer, cervical carcinoma, human ovarian cancer, hepatocellular carcinoma, lung cancer, human colon cancer and human skin/oral carcinoma. Last, but not the least, we describe the remaining challenges to overcome before the translation of noble metal nanotechnology to clinics.

Owing to its superior sensitivity and unique molecular fingerprint specificity, surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) has become a very powerful spectroscopic technique in a wide range of analytical applications in the past decades, including chemistry, physics, materials science, forensics, archaeology and life sciences. This chapter explains the basic principles of SERS; provides an overview of design and fabrication of plasmonic nanostructures for SERS; and highlights selected analytical applications of nanomaterial-based SERS probes in detection, analysis and imaging.

Inorganic nanomaterials have attracted interest as being outstanding sensing materials due to their high surface-to-volume ratio and tunable electrical properties. Transistors based on such nanomaterials exhibit a high sensitivity to environment, and are thus broadly applied as sensors. Chemical and biological sensors on the basis of nanowire (NW) transistors, which show ultra-high sensitivity and selectivity, have been previously reviewed. This chapter reviews various nanostructures of the semiconducting materials and multiple device configurations of the transistors for sensing application. It also discusses surface modification and assembly of the inorganic nanomaterials for improvement of the transistors' performance, including sensor sensitivity and selectivity.

The following sections are included:

• Introduction
• Carbon Materials: Carbon Nanotube and Graphene
• Recent Advances in use of CNT in Biosensor
• Graphene-Based Biosensor
• Conclusion
• References

Biochemical sensors based on organic field effect transistors (OFETs) show great potential for practical use in various fields, such as public environments, farm fields, industrial factories, clinical diagnosis and everyday health care. In this chapter, we describe the basic properties and requirements for OFET sensor devices, the advantages of organic semiconductors as sensors over their inorganic counterparts; then we summarize the recent progress on gas and chemical vapor sensors, explosive chemical sensors, ion and pH sensors, and biomolecular sensors, based on OFETs with 2D thin films as well as 1D nanowire materials as semiconductors. Detail sensing mechanisms of these sensors are illustrated and various organic thin film transistors (OTFTs) sensor device architectures are also introduced, and finally, we conclude with the possible future developments and direction of OFET sensors.

In this chapter, various conjugated polymers for sensing applications are first discussed. Then, two device structures are introduced according to their label-required or label-free detection principles. Finally, applications of chemical and biological sensors are discussed respectively.

Conjugated polymer nanoparticles (CP NPs) are nano-structured materials which have recently drawn much attention as highly fluorescent tags or sensory materials for in vitro and in vivo applications, because of their advantageous photophysical properties as well as easy preparation, tunable size, abundant surface chemistry and nontoxic features. In this chapter, we provide a brief review of the recent progress in this field focusing on their preparation methods, photophysical properties and their biological sensing and imaging applications.

The nanoporous matrix possesses advantages such as the large specific surface area and low diffusion rate, which could be promising materials in the fabrication of biosensors. The performance of the biosensor, such as the sensitivity, selectivity and stability, could thus be improved. Recently there have been a lot of reports regarding this subject. In this chapter, we will talk about the latest developments in nanostructured porous materials used for biosensor applications. Some examples are introduced according to the different kinds of nanostructured porous materials used in the biosensor. From these examples, we can see that nanoporous materials could be a good choice for the synthesis of biosensors. And we hope that readers will see the whole picture on this subject and make improvements in the future.

The following sections are included:

• Index