Perspective and prospects of 2D MXenes for smart biosensing

doi:10.1016/j.matlet.2021.130656

Materials Letters

Volume 304, 1 December 2021, 130656

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matlet.2021.130656 Get rights and content

Highlights

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MXenes are 2-D layered structures of transition metal carbides, nitrides and carbonitrides.
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MXenes possess exceptional opto-electronic and surface properties.
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MXenes are emerging materials for smart biosensing applications.
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MXenes aid early disease diagnosis and management through novel POC testing devices.

Abstract

The success of internet-of-things (IoT)-assisted wearable biomedical electronics demands novel high-performance biosensing prototypes which depend on smart opto-electric-nanosystems. In this direction, 2D MXenes (early transition metal carbides/nitrides) have recently emerged as materials of choice to investigate biosensors of desired performance due to high electro-conductivity, hydrophilicity, and versatile surface chemistry. This letter highlights recent advances and current challenges to project MXenes for next generation biosensing based on unfurled potentials and novel bio-analytical technologies.

Section snippets

Introduction: Emergence of MXenes

With the advancement in science and technology, biosensors have revolutionized the health and diagnostic sectors through the development of state-of-the art point of care devices[1]. Needless to mention, the efficiency and success of a biosensor is largely dependent on the properties of the material constituting the biosensor[1]. The lineage of biosensing materials goes back a long way, encompassing a wide range of 0D, 1D &2D nanomaterials including transition metal nanoparticles, nanorods, MoS₂

MXenes-supported advanced biosensing

Recently, science fraternity has witnessed an escalated research in the field of MXenes, especially as biosensors (Fig. 1B and C, and Fig. 2A–C). Stimulated by the initiative of Xu et al. for probing the neural activities by utilizing Ti₃C₂-MXene micropatterns based field-effect transistor (FET) biosensors [6], MXenes and their derivatives have now been well established in the field of biosensing with remarkable sensitivity, stability, detection range and limit of detection as can be traced in

Current challenges and future outlook

Despite their versatility and performance excellence in biosensing applications, MXenes still suffer from certain challenges which include the unavoidable usage of toxic chemicals and complicated etching procedures. Also, the current synthetic procedures exhibit difficulties in scaling up the yields and controlling the features like size, surface termination and defects in the resulting MXenes.

To address the sustainability and green aspects, the future synthetic protocols for MXenes are desired

Declaration of Competing Interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Acknowledgements

YKM acknowledges funding by Interreg Deutschland–Denmark with money from the European Regional Development Fund, project number 096-1.1-18 (Access and Acceleration). Authors acknowledge respective department and institutions for support.

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View full text

Perspective and prospects of 2D MXenes for smart biosensing

Highlights

Abstract

Section snippets

Introduction: Emergence of MXenes

MXenes-supported advanced biosensing

Current challenges and future outlook

Declaration of Competing Interest

Acknowledgements

Curr. Opin. Biomed. Eng.

Optik

Biosens. Bioelectron.

Sens. Actuators B: Chem.

Biosens. Bioelectron.

Sens. Actuator B: Chem.

Biosens. Bioelectron

Acta chimica slovaca

Chem Soc Rev

Adv. Funct. Mater.

ACS Nano

Adv. Mater.

Anal. Chem.

Small