A Review on the Role and Performance of Cellulose Nanomaterials in Sensors

Abstract

Sensors and biosensors play a key role as an analytical tool for the rapid, reliable, and early diagnosis of human diseases. Such devices can also be employed for monitoring environmental pollutants in air and water in an expedited way. More recently, nanomaterials have been proposed as an alternative in sensor fabrication to achieve gains in performance in terms of sensitivity, selectivity, and portability. In this direction, the use of cellulose nanomaterials (CNM), such as cellulose nanofibrils (CNF), cellulose nanocrystals (CNC), and bacterial cellulose (BC), has experienced rapid growth in the fabrication of varied types of sensors. The advantageous properties are related to the supramolecular structures that form the distinct CNM, their biocompatibility, and highly reactive functional groups that enable surface functionalization. The CNM can be applied as hydrogels and xerogels, thin films, nanopapers and other structures interesting for sensor design. Besides, CNM can be combined with other materials (e.g., nanoparticles, enzymes, carbon nanomaterials, etc.) and varied substrates to advanced sensors and biosensors fabrication. This review explores recent advances on CNM and composites applied in the fabrication of optical, electrical, electrochemical, and piezoelectric sensors for detecting analytes ranging from environmental pollutants to human physiological parameters. Emphasis is given to how cellulose nanomaterials can contribute to enhance the performance of varied sensors as well as expand novel sensing applications, which could not be easily achieved using standard materials. Finally, challenges and future trends on the use of cellulose-based materials in sensors and biosensors are also discussed.

Poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) Nanocomposites with Cellulose Nanocrystals

“…Top-down mechanical disintegration methods such as grinding, cryocrushing, high-intensity ultrasonication, and high-pressure homogenization are usually employed for the CNFs’ isolation. Through these techniques, dilute suspensions of cellulose fibers are subjected to high shear and impact forces, thus leading to mechanical cleavage along the longitudinal direction of the cellulosic source [ 78 , 81 , 82 , 83 ]. Specifically, the defibrillation methods yield nanostructures with both crystalline and amorphous regions.…”

“…Alternatively, BC, named bacterial nanocellulose, microbial cellulose, or bio-cellulose, is produced through a bottom-up approach using different aerobic non-pathogenic bacteria [ 82 , 83 , 84 ]. Besides being the purest form of nanocellulose, BC shows an ultrafine network structure containing fibers with micrometers in length and 20–100 nm in diameter, high water holding capacity and flexibility, and high crystallinity.…”

Smart choices: Mechanisms of intelligent food packaging

“…The receptor of a chemical sensor interacts chemically with the analyte, and the transducer converts the chemical information into a measurable signal. Chemical sensors are usually classified according to the transduction principles as electrical, electrochemical, optical, and gravimetric ( Teodoro et al, 2021 ). Chemical sensors have been proposed, for example, to quantify gases generated by food deterioration, such as a capacitive sensor to quantify NH 3 , TMA, ethanol, and H 2 S emitted from chicken meat spoilage ( Senapati and Sahu, 2020 ).…”

Recent Trends in Assessment of Cellulose Derivatives in Designing Novel and Nanoparticulate-Based Drug Delivery Systems for Improvement of Oral Health

“…Both bacterial and plant cellulose have great potential for application in the biomedical area, including dentistry [ 93 ]. A research group used the cellulose derivatives carboxymethyl cellulose sodium and hydroxyethyl cellulose, combined with gelatin, to get porous matrices loaded with metronidazole and given topically into the periodontal pocket [ 94 ].…”