[Frontiers in Bioscience E4, 254-278, January 1, 2012]

[Frontiers in Bioscience E4, 254-278, January 1, 2012]

ZnO materials and surface tailoring for biosensing

Rositza Yakimova¹, Linnea Selegard¹, Volodymyr Khranovskyy¹, Ruth Pearce¹, Anita Lloyd Spetz¹, Kajsa Uvdal¹

1Department of Physics, Chemistry and Biology, Linkoping University, SE-58183 Linkoping, Sweden

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Abstract
2. Introduction
3. Controllable wettability of ZnO nanostructures
4. Biocompatibility and toxicity aspects of ZnO applications
5. Biofunctionalization of ZnO materials: 5.1. Preparation of ZnO materials; 5.2. Surface cleaning; 5.3. Molecular attachment on ZnO crystal surfaces and nanoparticles
6. Recent achievements in ZnO nanocrystal based biosensors
7. Summary and perspectives
8. Acknowledgements
9. References

1. ABSTRACT

ZnO nanostructured materials, such as films and nanoparticles, could provide a suitable platform for development of high performance biosensors due to their unique fundamental material properties. This paper reviews different preparation techniques of ZnO nanocrystals and material issues like wettability, biocompatibility and toxicity, which have an important relevance to biosensor functionality. Efforts are made to summarize and analyze existing results regarding surface modification and molecular attachments for successful biofunctionalization and understanding of the mechanisms involved. A section is devoted to implementations of tailored surfaces in biosensors. We end with conclusions on the feasibility of using ZnO nanocrystals for biosensing.