Nanoporous structures-based biosensors for environmental and biomedical diagnostics: advancements, opportunities, and challenges

As emerging platforms, nanoporous-based biosensors have potentially useful applications for sensitive and selective detection of various analytes. The integration of nanoporous materials (e.g., nanocarbons, mesoporous, metal–organic frameworks (MOFs), and MOF-based nanocomposites, etc.) with various transduction techniques, such as electrochemical, optical, and mass-sensitized, has led to the development of biosensors for a wide spectrum of applications in healthcare, environmental monitoring, and food safety. These biosensors take advantage of the unique properties of nanoporous materials, such as tunable pore size and selective surface chemistry with high surface area, and enhance the interaction between the analyte and the recognition element. Overall, biosensors based on nanoporous material have very low limits of detection and appropriate linear range. This review focuses on recent developments in the design of biosensors based on nanoporous materials, including sensing mechanisms and applications.