Nanowire‐Based Sensors

Abstract

Nanowires are important potential candidates for the realization of the next generation of sensors. They offer many advantages such as high surface-to-volume ratios, Debye lengths comparable to the target molecule, minimum power consumption, and they can be relatively easily incorporated into microelectronic devices. Accordingly, there has been an intensified search for novel nanowire materials and corresponding platforms for realizing single-molecule detection with superior sensing performance. In this work, progress made towards the use of nanowires for achieving better sensing performance is critically reviewed. In particular, various nanowires types (metallic, semiconducting, and insulating) and their employment either as a sensor material or as a template material are discussed. Major obstacles and future steps towards the ultimate nanosensors based on nanowires are addressed.

Tunable electronic properties of silicon nanowires under strain and electric bias

“…C Semiconducting nanowires (NWs) are basic building blocks for the function and integration of nanoscale devices such as nanoswitches, single electron transistors, optoelectronic units, sensors, and solar cells. [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10] Silicon nanowires (SiNWs) are prototype semiconducting wires that have attracted a great deal of attention. 11 They have been found to have more advantageous catalytic properties than palladium or gold.…”

“…The NW has a diameter of 1.74 nm with 42 silicon atoms and 20 hydrogen atoms in the unit cell. Our first-principles calculations are based on DFT with the Vasko-Wilk-Nusair local density approximation (LDA) as implemented in DMol 3 . 24 The calculation was done using an all-electrons potential with double numerical plus polarization (DNP) as the basis set.…”

Organic Surface Modification of Silicon Nanowire-Based Sensor Devices

“…For an extensive overview of different materials that have been explored to prepare NWbased sensors, including silicon, we refer to the review of Ramgir et al (Ramgir, 2010). Several reviews on SiNW-based devices have been written with a clear focus on the chemical-vapour-deposition fabricated NWs by the Lieber and Zhou groups (Li, 2006;Patolsky, 2006b;Carlen & van den Berg, 2007) or top-down fabricated SiNW-based sensors from the Reed group (Stern, 2008).…”

Room temperature vanadium dioxide–carbon nanotube gas sensors made via continuous hydrothermal flow synthesis

“…Nanomaterials have shown promise for sensing of low concentrations of analyte, due to their high surface area and electronic properties that are affected by the local environment [3][4][5] . In some cases, the particular application and nanomaterial characteristics, permit sensor operation at room temperature, resulting in lower power consumption and increasing sensor suitability for use in portable devices 6 .…”