Metal oxides and their composites as flow-through biosensors for biomonitoring Book in Scopus uri icon

abstract

  • © 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.A microfluidic biosensor is an analytical device that recognizes target analytes or biomolecules in continuous flow of the analyte using a biological recognition element immobilized on a transducer to measure the response. The integration of the microfluidic system in the biosensors has many advantages such as precise control of flow, better mixing of analytes and reagents, lower sample and reagent volumes down to the nanoliter regime, and enhanced sensitivity of detection. In addition, the miniaturization of such devices in a single platform can offer real-time monitoring with high precision and accuracy. Metal oxides with various morphologies act as immunotransducers having hierarchical mesoporous nanostructures with high sensitivity, minimal interference, low detection limit, and fast response time. Further, the nanocomposites of metal oxides with various carbon allotropes such as graphene and carbon nanotubes serve as robust transducing elements which have improved electrical conductivity, high surface area, enhanced binding sites of target analytes, and fast response time. In this chapter we discuss the basics of microfluidics, device fabrication, and properties of various types of metal oxides and their composites with numerous designs and architectures which are used as transducer elements in microfluidic biosensing devices. Finally, we focus on the application of microfluidic biosensors in wearable point-of-care microfluidic devices to monitor the biomolecules in the resource-limited region.

publication date

  • December 3, 2021