Nanotechnology-based sensing

Pavlov, V, Xiao, Y, Willner, I., 2005. Inhibition of the acetylcholine esterase-stimulated growth of Au nanoparticles nanotechnology-based sensing of nerve gases. Nano Lett. 5, 649-653. 

Whilst the world of microbiological processing has a long history, in another sense it is as up-to-date as the recent captivating interest in the nano-sciences. In the cells typically used for a microbial transformation, several enzymes (catalysts) are packed into a cell volume of the order of 10s of pL (IpL = 10 L) for yeasts, and of about 100 pL for bacteria. Since a nanoliter is 10 L, and microbes are a fraction of this volume, these may be thought of as the ultimate nanoreactors. Appreciation of these aspects of microbial processing could prompt the use of nanotechnology-based probes to further understand, and possibly even to influence, these processes. 

Was Sir Wallace Akers wrong to set up The Frythe as he did In the sense that it proved unrealistic to expect the Divisions to see the possibilities for research that they themselves had not done, it may have been. On the other hand, it may take decades before an academic advance fructifies into a major invention. It is only now that we are beginning to see the emergence of new materials based on nanotechnology that are of great importance to the electronics and computing industries. Some of these are metal complexes and descendants of the chemistry that Chatt did so much to forward. 

The most commonly used method for detecting metal ions is inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). A Tiile comprehensive in both selectivity and sensitivity, ICP-MS often requires complicated instrumentation and sampling, which are known to be the major drawbacks of the technique. To overcome such limitations, several detection methods based on nanotechnology have recently been developed for metal ions. In particular, the unique properties of DNA-AuNPs such as programmable assembly and their optical properties have made them attractive for utilization in optical sensing systems. In this section, several optical sensing systems for metal ions based on DNA-AuNPs are discussed. 

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