Abstract
Nanosized carbon materials are offering great opportunities in various areas of nanotechnology. Carbon nanotubes and graphene, due to their unique mechanical, electronic, chemical, optical and electrochemical properties, represent the most interesting building blocks in various applications where analytical chemistry is of special importance. The possibility of conjugating carbon nanomaterials with biomolecules has received particular attention with respect to the design of chemical sensors and biosensors. This review describes the trends in this field as reported in the last 6 years in (bio)analytical chemistry in general, and in biosensing in particular.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Iijima S (1991) Helical microtubules of graphitic carbon. Nature 354:56–58
Novoselov KS, Geim AK, Morozov SV, Jiang D, Zhang Y, Dubonos SV, Grigorieva IV (2012) Electric field effect in atomically thin carbon films. Science 666:666–669
Yang W, Ratinac KR, Ringer SP, Thordarson P, Gooding JJ, Braet F (2010) Carbon nanomaterials in biosensors: should you use nanotubes or graphene? Angew Chem Int Ed 49:2114–2138
Merkoçi A (2005) Carbon nanotubes in analytical sciences. Microchim Acta 152:157–174
Biswas C, Lee YH (2011) Graphene versus carbon nanotubes in electronic devices. Adv Funct Mater 21:3806–3826
Wang Z, Zhou X, Zhang J, Boey F, Zhang H (2009) Direct electrochemical reduction of single-Layer graphene oxide and subsequent functionalization with glucose oxidase. JPhys Chem C 113:14071–14075
Peng X-Y, Liu X-X, Diamond D, Lau KT (2011) Synthesis of electrochemically-reduced graphene oxide film with controllable size and thickness and its use in supercapacitor. Carbon 49:3488–3496
Guo H-L, Wang X-F, Qian Q-Y, Wang F-B, Xia X-H (2009) A green approach to the synthesis of graphene nanosheets. ACS Nano 3:2653–2659
Dilimon VS, Sampath S (2011) Electrochemical preparation of few layer-graphene nanosheets via reduction of oriented exfoliated graphene oxide thin films in acetamide–urea–ammonium nitrate melt under ambient conditions. Thin Solid Films 519:2323–2327
Ramesha GK, Sampath S (2009) Electrochemical reduction of oriented graphene oxide films: an in situ raman spectroelectrochemical study. J Phys Chem C 113:7985–7989
Wang J, Yang S, Guo D, Yu P, Li D, Ye J, Mao L (2009) Comparative studies on electrochemical activity of graphene nanosheets and carbon nanotubes. Electrochem Commun 11:1892–1895
Artiles MS, Rout CS, Fisher TS (2011) Graphene-based hybrid materials and devices for biosensing. Adv Drug Deliv Rev 63:1352–1360
Pérez López B, Merkoçi A (2009) Improvement of the electrochemical detection of catechol by the use of a carbon nanotube based biosensor. Analyst 134:60–64
Chen Y, Vedala H, Kotchey GP, Audfray A, Cecioni S, Imberty A, Sébastien V, Star A (2012) Electronic detection of lectins using nanostructures: graphene versus carbon nanotubes. ACS Nano 6:760–770
Loo AH, Bonanni A, Pumera M (2012) Impedimetric thrombin aptasensor based on chemically modified graphenes. Nanoscale 4:143–147
Pumera M (2011) Graphene in biosensing. Mater Today 14:308–315
Kuila T, Bose S, Khanra P, Kumar A (2011) Recent advances in graphene-based biosensors. Biosensors Bioelectron 26:4637–4648
Angione MD, Pilolli R, Cotrone S, Magliulo M, Mallardi A, Palazzo G, Sabbatini L, Fine D, Dodabalapur A, Cioffi N, Torsi L (2011) Carbon based materials for electronic bio-sensing. Mater Today 14:424–433
Guix M, Pérez-López B, Sahin M, Roldán M, Ambrosi A, Merkoçi A (2010) Structural characterization by confocal laser scanning microscopy and electrochemical study of multi-walled carbon nanotube tyrosinase matrix for phenol detection. Analyst 135:1918–1925
Pérez-López B, Merkoçi A (2011) Magnetic nanoparticles modified with carbon nanotubes for electrocatalytic magnetoswitchable biosensing applications. Adv Funct Mater 21:255–260
Morales-Narváez E, Pérez-López B, Pires LB, Merkoçi A (2012) Simple förster resonance energy transfer evidence for the ultrahigh quantum dot quenching efficiency by graphene oxide compared to other carbon structures. Carbon 50:2987–2993
Wang BX, Wang C, Qu K, Song Y, Ren J, Miyoshi D, Sugimoto N, Xiaogang Q (2010) Ultrasensitive and selective detection of a prognostic indicator in early-stage cancer using graphene oxide and carbon nanotubes. Adv Funct Mater 20:3967–3971
Jiang H (2011) Chemical preparation of graphene-based nanomaterials and their applications in chemical and biological sensors. Adv Mater 7:2413–2427
Wang K, Liu Q, Dai L, Yan J, Ju C, Qiu B, Wu X (2011) A highly sensitive and rapid organophosphate biosensor based on enhancement of CdS – decorated graphene nanocomposite. Anal Chim Acta 695:84–88
Subrahmanyam KS, Vivekchand SRC, Govindaraj RCNR (2008) A study of graphenes prepared by different methods: characterization, properties and solubilization. J Mater Chem 18:1517–1523
Bahun GJ, Wang C, Adronov A (2006) Solubilizing single-walled carbon nanotubes with pyrene-functionalized block copolymers. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 44:1941–1951
Vashist SK, Zheng D, Al-Rubeaan K, Luong JHT, Sheu F-S (2011) Advances in carbon nanotube based electrochemical sensors for bioanalytical applications. Biotech Adv 29:169–188
Jacobs CB, Peairs MJ, Venton BJ (2010) Review: carbon nanotube based electrochemical sensors for biomolecules. Anal Chim Acta 662:105–127
Wang J, Lin Y (2008) Functionalized carbon nanotubes and nanofibers for biosensing applications. Trends Anal Chem 27:619–626
Pérez-López B, Sola J, Alegret S, Merkoçi A (2008) A carbon nanotube PVC based matrix modified with glutaraldehyde suitable for biosensor applications. Electroanal 20:603–610
Reuel NF, Ahn J-H, Kim J-H, Zhang J, Boghossian A, Mahal LK, Strano MS (2011) Transduction of glycan-lectin binding using near-infrared fluorescent single-walled carbon nanotubes for glycan profiling. J Am Chem Soc 133:17923–17933
Baldrich E, Muñoz FX (2011) Carbon nanotube wiring: a tool for straightforward electrochemical biosensing at magnetic particles. Anal Chem 83:9244–9250
Bonanni A, Pividori MI, Del Valle M (2010) Impedimetric detection of influenza A (H1N1) DNA sequence using carbon nanotubes platform and gold nanoparticles amplification. Analyst 135:1765–1772
Crespo GA, Macho S, Rius FX (2008) Ion-selective electrodes using carbon nanotubes as ion-to-electron transducers. Anal Chem 80:1316–1322
De-los-Santos-Álvarez N, Lobo-Castañón MJ, Miranda-Ordieres AJ, Tuñón-Blanco P (2008) Aptamers as recognition elements for label-free analytical devices. Trends Anal Chem 27:437–446
Bai L, Yuan R, Chai Y, Zhuo Y, Yuan Y, Wang Y (2012) Simultaneous electrochemical detection of multiple analytes based on dual signal amplification of single-walled carbon nanotubes and multi-labeled graphene sheets. Biomater 33:1090–1096
Agüí L, Yáñez-Sedeño P, Pingarrón JM (2008) Role of carbon nanotubes in electroanalytical chemistry: a review. Anal Chim Acta 622:11–47
Vega D, Agüí L, González-Cortés A, Yáñez-Sedeño P, Pingarrón JM (2007) Voltammetry and amperometric detection of tetracyclines at multi-wall carbon nanotube modified electrodes. Anal BioanalChem 389:951–958
Zhao J, Zhang Y, Wu K, Chen J, Zhou Y (2011) Electrochemical sensor for hazardous food colourant quinoline yellow based on carbon nanotube-modified electrode. Food Chem 128:569–572
Viñas P, López-García I, Bravo MB, Hernández-Córdoba M (2011) Multi-walled carbon nanotubes as solid-phase extraction adsorbents for the speciation of cobalamins in seafoods by liquid chromatography. Anal BioanalChem 401:1393–1399
André C, Aljhani R, Gharbi T, Guillaume YC (2011) Incorporation of carbon nanotubes in a silica HPLC column to enhance the chromatographic separation of peptides: theoretical and practical aspects. J SepScience 34:1221–1227
Ravelo-Pérez LM, Herrera-Herrera AV, Hernández-Borges J, Rodríguez-Delgado MA (2010) Carbon nanotubes: solid-phase extraction. J Chromatogr A 1217:2618–2641
Cui Y, Liu S, Hu Z-J, Liu X-H, Gao H-W (2011) Solid-phase extraction of lead(II) ions using multiwalled carbon nanotubes grafted with tris(2-aminoethyl)amine. Microchim Acta 174:107–113
Safavi A, Maleki N, Doroodmand MM (2010) Single-walled carbon nanotubes as stationary phase in gas chromatographic separation and determination of argon, carbon dioxide and hydrogen. Anal Chim Acta 675:207–212
Wu R-G, Yang C-S, Wang P-C, Tseng F-G (2009) Nanostructured pillars based on vertically aligned carbon nanotubes as the stationary phase in micro-CEC. Electrophoresis 30:2025–2031
Sombra L, Moliner-Martínez Y, Cárdenas S, Valcárcel M (2008) Carboxylic multi-walled carbon nanotubes as immobilized stationary phase in capillary electrochromatography. Electrophoresis 29:3850–3857
Speltini A, Merli D, Dondi D, Paganini G, Profumo A (2012) Improving selectivity in gas chromatography by using chemically modified multi-walled carbon nanotubes as stationary phase. Anal BioanalChem 403:1157–1165
Sae-Khow O, Mitra S (2009) Carbon nanotubes as the sorbent for integrating micro-solid phase extraction within the needle of a syringe. J Chromatogr A 1216:2270–2274
Chen S, Zhu L, Lu D, Cheng X, Zhou X (2010) Separation and chromium speciation by single-wall carbon nanotubes microcolumn and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. Microchim Acta 169:123–128
Rastkari N, Ahmadkhaniha R, Yunesian M (2009) Single-walled carbon nanotubes as an effective adsorbent in solid-phase microextraction of low level methyl tert-butyl ether, ethyl tert-butyl ether and methyl tert-amyl ether from human urine. J Chromatogr B 877:1568–1574
Upadhyayula VKK, Deng S, Mitchell MC, Smith GB (2009) Application of carbon nanotube technology for removal of contaminants in drinking water: A review. Sci Total Environ 408:1–13
Huang X, Chang X, He Q, Cui Y, Zhai Y, Jiang N (2008) Tris(2-aminoethyl) amine functionalized silica gel for solid-phase extraction and preconcentration of Cr(III), Cd(II) and Pb(II) from waters. J Hazard Mater 157:154–160
Yang J, Deng S, Lei J, Ju H, Gunasekaran S (2011) Electrochemical synthesis of reduced graphene sheet-AuPd alloy nanoparticle composites for enzymatic biosensing. Biosens Bioelectron 29:159–166
Wang C, Li J, Amatore C, Chen Y, Jiang H, Wang X-M (2011) Gold nanoclusters and graphene nanocomposites for drug delivery and imaging of cancer cells. Angew Chem Int Ed 50:11644–11648
Kong F-Y, Li X-R, Zhao W-W, Xu J-J, Chen H-Y (2012) Graphene oxide–thionine–Au nanostructure composites: preparation and applications in non-enzymatic glucose sensing. Electrochem Commun 14:59–62
Fan Y, Liu J-H, Yang C-P, Yu M, Liu P (2011) Graphene–polyaniline composite film modified electrode for voltammetric determination of 4-aminophenol. Sens Actuators B 157:669–674
Pumera M, Ambrosi A, Bonanni A, Chng ELK, Poh HL (2010) Graphene for electrochemical sensing and biosensing. TrAC Trends in Anal Chem 29:954–965
Chen J-L, Yan X-P, Meng K, Wang S-F (2011) Graphene oxide based photoinduced charge transfer label-free near-infrared fluorescent biosensor for dopamine. Anal Chem 83:8787–8793
Alwarappan S, Erdem A, Liu C, Li C-Z (2009) Probing the electrochemical properties of graphene nanosheets for biosensing applications. J Phys Chem C 113:8853–8857
Choi BG, Im J, Kim HS, Park H (2011) Flow-injection amperometric glucose biosensors based on graphene/Nafion hybrid electrodes. Electrochim Acta 56:9721–9726
Roy S, Soin N, Bajpai R, Misra DS, McLaughlin JA, Roy SS (2011) Graphene oxide for electrochemical sensing applications. J Mater Chem 21:14725–14731
Chen D, Tang L, Li J (2010) Graphene-based materials in electrochemistry. Chem Soc Rev 39:3157–3180
Liu M, Zhao H, Quan X, Chen S, Fan X (2010) Distance-independent quenching of quantum dots by nanoscale-graphene in self-assembled sandwich immunoassay. Chem Commun 46:7909–7911
Mohanty N, Berry V (2008) Resolution biodevice and DNA transistor: interfacing graphene derivatives with nanoscale and microscale biocomponents. Nano Lett 8:4469–4476
Bonanni A, Pumera M (2011) Graphene platform for Hairpin-DNA-based impedimetric genosensing. ACS Nano 5:2356–2361
Giovanni M, Bonanni A, Pumera M (2012) Detection of DNA hybridization on chemically modified graphene platforms. Analyst 137:580–583
Stergiou DV, Diamanti EK, Gournis D, Prodromidis MI (2010) Comparative study of different types of graphenes as electrocatalysts for ascorbic acid. Electrochem Commun 12:1307–1309
Lu J, Do I, Drzal LT, Worden RM, Lee I (2008) Nanometal-decorated exfoliated graphite nanoplatelet based glucose biosensors with high sensitivity and fast response. ACS Nano 2:1825–1832
Shan C, Yang H, Song J, Han D, Ivaska A, Niu L (2009) Direct electrochemistry of glucose oxidase and biosensing for glucose based on graphene. Anal Chem 81:2378–2382
Song W, Li D-W, Li Y-T, Li Y, Long Y-T (2011) Disposable biosensor based on graphene oxide conjugated with tyrosinase assembled gold nanoparticles. Biosens Bioelectron 26:3181–3186
Chua CK, Ambrosi A, Pumera M (2011) Graphene based nanomaterials as electrochemical detectors in Lab-on-a-chip devices. Electrochem Commun 13:517–519
Morales-Narváez E, Merkoçi A (2012) Graphene oxide as an optical biosensing platform. Adv Mater 25:3298–3308
Jung JH, Cheon DS, Liu F, Lee KB, Seo TS (2010) A graphene oxide based immuno-biosensor for pathogen detection. Angew Chem Int Ed 49:5708–5711
Chen Z, Berciaud S, Nuckolls C, Heinz TF, Brus LE (2010) Energy transfer from individual semiconductor nanocrystals to graphene. ACS Nano 4:2964–2968
Kim J, Cote LJ, Kim F, Huang J (2010) Visualizing graphene based sheets by fluorescence quenching microscopy. J Am ChemSoc 132:260–267
Lu C-H, Yang H-H, Zhu C-L, Chen X, Chen G-N (2009) A graphene platform for sensing biomolecules. Angew Chem In Ed 48:4785–4787
Chang H, Tang L, Wang Y, Jiang J, Li J (2010) Graphene fluorescence resonance energy transfer aptasensor for the thrombin detection. Anal Chem 82:2341–2346
Yang R, Tang Z, Yan J, Kang H, Kim Y, Zhu Z, Tan W (2008) Noncovalent assembly of carbon nanotubes and single-stranded DNA: an effective sensing platform for probing biomolecular interactions. Anal Chem 80:7408–7413
Liu Q, Shi J, Zeng L, Wang T, Cai Y, Jiang G (2011) Evaluation of graphene as an advantageous adsorbent for solid-phase extraction with chlorophenols as model analytes. J Chromatogr A 1218:197–204
Xu L, Feng J, Li J, Liu X, Jiang S (2012) Graphene oxide bonded fused-silica fiber for solid-phase microextraction-gas chromatography of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in water. J Sep Sci 35:93–100
Huang K-J, Yu S, Li J, Wu Z-W, Wei C-Y (2011) Extraction of neurotransmitters from rat brain using graphene as a solid-phase sorbent, and their fluorescent detection by HPLC. Microchim Acta 176:327–335
Gulbakan B, Yasun E, Shukoor MI, Zhu Z, You M, Tan X, Sanchez H, Powell DH, Dai H, Tan W (2010) A dual platform for selective analyte enrichment and ionization in mass spectrometry using aptamer-conjugated graphene oxide. J Am Chem Soc 132:17408–17410
Tang LAL, Wang J, Loh KP (2010) Graphene-based SELDI probe with ultrahigh extraction and sensitivity for DNA oligomer. J Am Chem Soc 132:10976–10977
Dong X, Cheng J, Li J, Wang Y (2010) Graphene as a novel matrix for the analysis of small molecules by MALDI-TOF MS. Anal Chem 82:6208–6214
Wang Y, Gao S, Zang X, Li J, Ma J (2012) Graphene-based solid-phase extraction combined with flame atomic absorption spectrometry for a sensitive determination of trace amounts of lead in environmental water and vegetable samples. Anal Chim Acta 716:112–118
Wang YK, Zang XH, Gao ST, Li JC, Ma JJ (2012) Application of graphene as a sorbent for the preconcentration and determination of trace amounts of lead in water samples prior to flame atomic absorption spectrometry. Microchim Acta 177:497–504
Liu Q, Shi J, Sun J, Wang T, Zeng L, Zhu N, Jiang G (2011) Graphene-assisted matrix solid-phase dispersion for extraction of polybrominated diphenyl ethers and their methoxylated and hydroxylated analogs from environmental samples. Anal Chim Acta 708:61–68
Bai H, Li C, Shi G (2011) Functional composite materials based on chemically converted graphene. Adv Mater 23:1089–1115
Kuilla T, Bhadra S, Yao D, Kim NH, Bose S, Lee JH (2010) Recent advances in graphene based polymer composites. Prog Polym Sci 35:1350–1375
Kauffman DR, Star (2010) A graphene versus carbon nanotubes for chemical sensor and fuel cell applications. Analyst 135:2790–2797
Zhang Q, Yang S, Zhang J, Zhang L, Kang P, Li J, Xu J, Zhou H, Song X-M (2011) Fabrication of an electrochemical platform based on the self-assembly of graphene oxide-multiwall carbon nanotube nanocomposite and horseradish peroxidase: direct electrochemistry and electrocatalysis. Nanotechnology 22:494010–494017
Alarcón-Angeles G, Pérez-López B, Palomar-Pardave M, Ramírez-Silva M, Alegret S, Merkoci A (2008) Enhanced host–guest electrochemical recognition of dopamine using cyclodextrin in the presence of carbon nanotubes. Carbon 46:898–906
Zelada-Guillén GA, Riu J, Düzgün A, Rius FX (2009) Immediate detection of living bacteria at ultralow concentrations using a carbon nanotube based potentiometric aptasensor. Angew Chem Int Ed 48:7334–7337
Acknowledgments
We acknowledge funding from the MICINN (Spain) for MAT2011 -25870 project and E.U.’s support under FP7 contract number 246513 “NADINE’ and Torres Quevedo scholarship given to Briza Pérez-López.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Pérez-López, B., Merkoçi, A. Carbon nanotubes and graphene in analytical sciences. Microchim Acta 179, 1–16 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00604-012-0871-9
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00604-012-0871-9