Novel electrochemical and optical sensors developed with the help of a new family of nanopolymer materials called metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) and two-dimensional (2D) materials can be used for rapid and convenient detection of several health, food quality and environmental parameters and may pave the way for low-cost point-of-care devices for rapid identification and screening of diseases like anemia, cancer, etc.
These excellent material features have been exploited to develop electrochemical and optical sensors for various analytes such as bacteria, aflatoxins, and heavy metals.
Researchers at the Institute of Nano Science and Technology (INST), Mohali, an autonomous institute of the Department of Science and Technology, have developed a family of electrochemical and optical biosensors based on nanopolymer multifunctional metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) and two dimensional (2D) materials. MOFs are multifunctional coordination polymers while MoS2 nanosheets, MgEns (MXenes) are some of the two dimensional (2D) materials that have emerged as materials of choice for sensors.
Researchers have used MOFs, 2D nanomaterials (e.g., MoS2, MgNes) and their composites. While these materials provide large surface area, functionality and desired permeation modes, their integration with bio-recognition molecules was also robust and hence resulted in reliable sensor performance. The results of this research were published in the Elsevier journals Food Control and Microchemical.