Bio

and
ChemicalSenso
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 Reference Books

1) Florinel‐Gabriel Bănică, Chemical Sensors and Biosensors:

Fundamentals and Applications (Wiley 2012)
2) Bansi Dhar Malhotra and Chandra Mouli Pandey, Biosensors:
Fundamentals and Applications (A Smithers Group Company,
2017)
3) Sadana and N. Sadana, Handbook of Biosensors and
Biosensor Kinetics, Amsterdam; London: Elsevier Science, 2010.
4) U. E. Spichiger-Keller, Chemical Sensors and Biosensors for
Medical and Biological Applications, Weinheim; New York:
Wiley-VCH, 1998.
5) J.-M. Lehn; Supramolecular Chemistry-Concepts and
Perspectives (Wiley-VCH, 1995)
6) P. D. Beer, P. A. Gale, D. K. Smith; Supramolecular Chemistry
(Oxford University Press, 1999)
7) J. W. Steed and J. L. Atwood; Supramolecular Chemistry (Wiley,
2000)
(A device which detects or measures a physical property and records, indicates, or
otherwise responds to it.)

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 What is Sensor
A sensor is a device that detects and
responds to some type of input from the
physical environment.
 Sensor

Detects and Responds

Receptor transducer
Binding unit Signaling unit
 Sens(or) in humans

Transducer
(signaling)

Recept
or

Detects and Responds

 Color only with Henna leaf

 The leaves of the Henna(மருதாணி) plant contain a natural and very

effective coloring pigment Lawsone. This Orange/Red dye releases as
the leaves are crushed.
 The Lawsone dye molecules actually color the hair and skin by safely
binding to their protein molecules.

Detects and Responds

Chameleons ability to change their color

Detects and Responds

 Sensory plants
Touch-me-not plant?

Pressure sensor

(தொட்டால்சிணுங்கி)

The Venus flytrap

Detects and Responds

A Chemical Sensor is a molecular device that
transforms chemical information (presence of
a particular element or ion, concentration,
chemical activity…) into an analytically useful
signal.
Detects and Responds

R
e
c
e
p
t
o
r
Type of Chemical Sensors

 Optical (hv)
 Electrochemical (e)
 Mass (m)
 Magnetic (B)
 Thermal (T)
Breath analyser To measure alcohol

Glucose sensor
To measure
Blood
glucose level
Pregnancy test strip
hCG protein
Detection
in urine

Gas sensor
Pulse oximeter
Intelligent packing

Smart food package

Formalin detection in FISH
Detectors for Trace Heavy Metals Detectors for Arsenic

1 Test = 15 US dolor
1 Test = 10 US dolor (Rs = 1200)
(Rs 750)
A well-organized Chemical Sensor does the following functions:

It interacts with a specific target analyte in the presence of

coexisting analytes.
Reports the results in the form of analytical signals that can be
analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively.
The chemosensor must be stable in the biological pH range and
non-toxic to the cells when it used in any biological applications
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Receptor or Binding Subunit: It provides fast and
reversible binding to the analyte of interest and the
chemical information is transformed into energy.

Spacer or Transducer: It is an active unit whose

properties change upon the interaction of the receptor
with an analyte and eventually a spacer changes the
geometry of the system and tunes the electronic
interaction among the two former moieties. Mostly,
chemosensors broadly categorized into optical,
electrochemical, mass sensitive and heat-sensitive
sensors based on the operating principle of transducer.

Signaling or Read-out Subunit: The signaling or read-

out subunit is the part responsible for reporting the
binding event.
In general, the aim of a chemical sensor is to measure the
concentration of a specific substance related to biology
and environment.

Increasing attraction for applications due to online or in

situ and continuous detection

environmental monitoring (heavy metals and anion)

Industrial process monitoring (Humidity, temp. pH, etc)
gas analysis (CO, H2S, methane)
Biological monitoring (phosphates, sugars,
biomolecules)
Defense (explosives)
Food (formaline, amines, etc)
Agriculture (pesticides)

Chemical sensor becomes one of the most active and

effective directions of modern sensor technology.
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Classical approaches for the development of
Chemical sensors:
Binding site-signaling unit approach
Displacement approach
Chemodosimeter approach
 Classical approaches for the development of Chemical sensors:

• Binding site-signaling unit approach

• Displacement approach
• Chemodosimeter approach
 Classical approaches for the development of Chemical sensors:

• Binding site-signaling unit approach

• Displacement approach
• Chemodosimeter approach
 Properties of a good chemical senor
 Selectivity
 Sensitivity
 Limit of Detection (LOD)
 Limit of Quantification(LOQ)
 Binding Constant
 Fast response time
 Less than a minute
 Cheap
 Readily available
 Affordable
 Reversible
 Reusable many time
 Highly stable
 Water friendly Co-existing
analytes.
 Less maintenance
Charles Clark Jr. designed the first biosensor research
instrument in 1956 using an electrode to measure the oxygen
concentration in blood.

After that, scientists from different fields, such as physics,

chemistry, and material science, have come together to build
more sophisticated, reliable, and mature biosensing devices for
applications in the field of medicine

Clark is considered the "father of biosensors", and the modern-

day glucose sensor used daily by millions of diabetics is based
on his research.

31
Biosensors are devices used to detect the
presence or concentration of a biological
analyte, such as a biomolecule, a biological
structure or a microorganism.

Biosensors consist of three parts: a component

that recognizes the analyte and produces a
signal, a signal transducer, and a reader device.

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BIO-SENSOR
 Biosensor = a biological element senses
•Microorganism
•Tissue
•Cell
•Organelle
•Nucleic Acid
•Enzyme
•Enzyme Component
•Receptor
•Antibody
The component used to bind the target molecule.
.

Must be highly specific, stable under

storage conditions, and immobilized.
The recognition component, often called a bioreceptor, uses biomolecules from
organisms or receptors modeled after biological systems to interact with the analyte of
interest. This interaction is measured by the biotransducer which outputs a measurable
signal proportional to the presence of the target analyte in the sample.

Bio-receptors

• Antibody/antigen interactions
• Artificial binding proteins
• Enzymatic interactions
• Nucleic acid interactions
• Cells
• Tissues
Antibody/antigen interactions

There are limitations with using antibodies

in sensors: 1. The antibody binding capacity
is strongly dependent on assay conditions
(e.g. pH and temperature), and 2. the
antibody-antigen interaction is generally
robust, however, binding can be disrupted
by organic solvents, or even ultrasonic
radiation.
Lock and Key Principle
Artificial binding proteins
The artificial binding proteins are much smaller than antibodies (usually
less than 100 amino-acid residues), have a strong stability, lack disulfide
bonds and can be expressed in high yield in reducing cellular
environments like the bacterial cytoplasm, contrary to antibodies and their
derivatives. They are thus especially suitable to create biosensors
Enzymatic interactions
The specific binding capabilities and catalytic activity of enzymes make
them popular bioreceptors. Analyte recognition is enabled through several
possible mechanisms:
1) Enzyme converting the analyte into a product that is sensor-
detectable,
2) Detecting enzyme inhibition or activation by the analyte,
3) Monitoring modification of enzyme properties resulting from
interaction with the analyte.

The main reasons for the common use of enzymes in biosensors

are:

1) Ability to catalyze a large number of reactions;

2) Potential to detect a group of analytes (substrates, products,
inhibitors, and modulators of the catalytic activity); and
3) Suitability with several different transduction methods for
detecting the analyte. Notably, since enzymes are not
consumed in reactions, the biosensor can easily be used
continuously. The catalytic activity of enzymes also allows
lower limits of detection compared to common binding
techniques. However, the sensor's lifetime is limited by the
stability of the enzyme.
Nucleic acid interactions

Biosensors employing nucleic acid

based receptors can be either
based on complementary base
pairing interactions referred to as
genosensors or specific nucleic
acid based antibody mimics
(aptamers) as aptasensors.

The recognition process is based

on the principle of complementary
base pairing, adenine:thymine and
cytosine:guanine in DNA. If the
target nucleic acid sequence is
known, complementary sequences
can be synthesized, labeled, and
then immobilized on the sensor.
Biosensors can be classified by their
biotransducer type. The most common types of
biotransducers used in biosensors are:
 Types of Biosensors

Electrochemical Biosensors:
Electrochemical biosensors react with an analyte of
interest to product an electrical signal proportional to the
analyte concentration.
Potentiometric – measures variations in open circuit
potential.
Amperometric – measures currents due to the reduction
or oxidation of electroactive species.

Immunosensors: These biosensors are affinity ligand-

based biosensor solid-state devices in which the
immunochemical reaction is coupled to a transducer.

Magnetic Biosensors: Magnetic biosensors measure

changes in magnetic properties or magnetically induced
effects.
Thermometric Biosensors: Several biological
reactions are associated with the release of heat.
Thermometric biosensors measure the temperature
change of the solution containing the analyte caused by
these enzymatic reactions.

Acoustic Biosensors: Also referred to as piezoelectric

biosensors, these sensors measure the change in the
physical properties of an acoustic wave.

Optical Biosensors: The most common type of

biosensor, optical biosensors can be label-free or label-
based. These biosensors measure the interaction of an
optical field with a biorecognition sensing element.
Colorimetric - measures changes in light adsorption
Photometric - measures light intensity
Cation-binding sensors

 Detecting cations is of great interest to many scientists,

including chemists, biologists, clinical biochemists and
environmentalists.

 Sodium, potassium, magnesium, calcium are involved

in biological processes such as transmission of nerve
impulses, muscle contraction, regulation of cell activity,
etc. Moreover, various metal ions belong to
metalloenzymes.
 In medicine, it is important to control the serum levels
of lithium in patients under treatment for manic
depression, and potassium in the case of high blood
pressure.

 Regarding aluminium, its toxicity has long been

recognized and there is a controversy about its
possible implication in Alzheimer’s disease.

 In chemical oceanography, it has been demonstrated

that some nutrients required for the survival of
microorganisms in sea water contain zinc, iron,
manganese as enzyme cofactors.

 It is well known that mercury, lead and cadmium are

Numerous analytical methods that are available for the
detection of cations.
flame photometry,

•atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS)

•ion sensitive electrodes
•electron microprobe analysis
•neutron activation analysis
•ICP-MS
•XRF
Expensive, often require samples of large size and do not
allow continuous monitoring.
In contrast, the methods based on chemical
sensors offer distinct advantages in terms of
sensitivity, selectivity, response time, local
observation

Moreover, remote sensing is possible by using

optical fibres with a molecular sensor
immobilized at the tip.
Therefore, efforts are being made to develop
selective chemical sensors for cation detection
 Signaling Unit
Binding Unit

Molecular
sensors
for
cation
recognitio
n
Valinomycine-ionophore

Valinomycin is a naturally occurring dodecadepsipeptide used in the

transport of potassium
Answer???
Size Selectivity

O
O O O
O O +
O O Na
+ O O
O O Rb
O O O
O
[12] Crown-4 logK = 4.35
logK = 4.7
O
O O O
O O O
O O +
O O + K
Rb O O
O O O
[15] Crown-5 O
logK = 6.1
logK = 5.3
O
O O

O O
O

[18] Crown-6

O O O
O O O

logK = 2.2