Keeping the doctor away: An aptamer attached to an electrode coated with single‐walled carbon nanotubes interacts selectively with bacteria (see picture). The resulting electrochemical response is highly accurate and reproducible and starts at ultralow bacteria concentrations, thus providing a simple, selective method for pathogen detection.

Potentiometry is a very simple electrochemical technique with extraordinary analytical capabilities. It is also well known that nanostructured materials display properties which they do not show in the bulk phase. The combination of the two fields of potentiometry and nanomaterials is therefore a promising area of research and development. In this report, we explain the fundamentals of potentiometric devices that incorporate nanostructured materials and we highlight the advantages and drawbacks of combining nanomaterials and potentiometry. The paper provides an overview of the role of nanostructured materials in the two commonest potentiometric sensors: field-effect transistors and ion-selective electrodes. Additionally, we provide a few recent examples of new potentiometric sensors that are based on receptors immobilized directly onto the nanostructured material surface. Moreover, we summarize the use of potentiometry to analyze processes involving nanostructured materials and the prospects that the use of nanopores offer to potentiometry. Finally, we discuss several difficulties that currently hinder developments in the field and some future trends that will extend potentiometry into new analytical areas such as biology and medicine.

Keeping the doctor away: An aptamer attached to an electrode coated with single‐walled carbon nanotubes interacts selectively with bacteria (see picture). The resulting electrochemical response is highly accurate and reproducible and starts at ultralow bacteria concentrations, thus providing a simple, selective method for pathogen detection.

A facile, solid-contact selective potentiometric aptasensor exploiting a network of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNT) acting as a transducing element is described in this work. The molecular properties of the SWCNT surface have been modified by covalently linking aptamers as biorecognition elements to the carboxylic groups of the SWCNT walls. As a model system to demonstrate the generic application of the approach, a 15-mer thrombin aptamer interacts with thrombin and the affinity interaction gives rise to a direct potentiometric signal that can be easily recorded within 15 s. The dynamic linear range, with a sensitivity of 8.0 mV/log a(Thr) corresponds to the 10(-7)-10(-6) M range of thrombin concentrations, with a limit of detection of 80 nM. The aptasensor displays selectivity against elastase and bovine serum albumin and is easily regenerated by immersion in 2 M NaCl. The aptasensor demonstrates the capacity of direct detection of the recognition event avoiding the use of labels, mediators, or the addition of further reagents or analyte accumulation.

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