RSC Publishing


Publishing

 

Cover image for Journal of Materials Chemistry, select for current issue

Journal of Materials Chemistry

High impact applications, properties and synthesis of exciting new materials



Also of interest

Soft Matter

Physics, chemistry and biology of Soft Matter


Paper

J. Mater. Chem., 2005, 15, 2697 - 2706, DOI: 10.1039/b503026a


Non-linear transduction strategies for chemo/biosensing on small length scales

Aetna W. Wun, Preston T. Snee, YinThai Chan, Moungi G. Bawendi and Daniel G. Nocera


As the function of optically-based chemo/biosensors (CBsensors) evolves towards micro- and nanoscale dimensions, the sensitivity of the device is compromised because there are simply too few reporting active sites. We see this issue as the fundamental challenge confronting the design of small length scale CBsensors, providing an imperative for the development of new optical transduction strategies. To address this challenge, we are currently fabricating: (i) new materials that will amplify the primary optical signal from the CBsensing active site in micro- and nano-environments and (ii) new sensing elements and devices to achieve high gain from a non-linear optical response. We present here the synthesis and characterization of two platforms poised for sensing by non-linear transduction.

Graphical abstract image for this article  (ID: b503026a)