Sensors nanoporous templates

Long nanochannels can be used as single molecule sensors in a similar way as nanopores, as has been demonstrated in several recent studies. In addition to the application as single molecule sensors, long nanochannels and their arrays can be used as filters for molecule separation, membranes for electroosmotic pumping, templates for nanowire synthesis, electrodes for supercapacitors, and proton exchange membranes in fuel cells. Novel and complex transport phenomena can occur in nanochannels, leading to improved performance or new functions for devices made of nanochannels. 

As was noted before, the kinetics of palladium-based sensor response is limited by bulk diffusion. This means that response at room temperatures cannot be fast. Ding et al. (2006) proposed to resolve this problem by forming nanoporous palladium thin films using anodic alnminum oxide (AAO) templates. Ding et al. (2006) have found that porons films had lower detection limit and faster and sharper response than the dense palladium films. Ding et al. (2006) believe that the film delamination problem may be alleviated in the nanoporous structures as well. 

Nanoelectrode ensembles (NEEs) (see also Chapter 10 of this handbook) are nanotech-based electroanalytical tools which find application in a variety of fields ranging from electroanalysis to sensors (86) and electronics (7). They are fabricated by growing metal nanowires in the pores of a template, typically a PC nanoporous manbrane. The density of the pores in the template determines the number of Au-disk nanoelectrode elanents per cm of NEE surface and, correspondingly, the average distance between the nanoelectrode elements. Such electrode systems proved to be valuable tools for trace determinations and kinetics studies by simply using cyclic voltammetry (CV) (5, 69, 86, 97). 

Akil-Jradi, S.,Jradi, S., Plain, J., Adam, P.-M., Bijeon, J.-L., Royer, R, Bachelor, R., 2012. Micro/nanoporous polymer chips as templates for highly sensitive SERS sensors. RSC Adv. 2 (20), 7837-7842. 

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