Trends on Aerogel-Based Biosensors for Medical Applications: An Overview

Abstract

Aerogels are unique solid-state materials composed of interconnected 3D solid networks and a large number of air-filled pores. This structure leads to extended structural characteristics as well as physicochemical properties of the nanoscale building blocks to macroscale, and integrated typical features of aerogels, such as high porosity, large surface area, and low density, with specific properties of the various constituents. Due to their combination of excellent properties, aerogels attract much interest in various applications, ranging from medicine to construction. In recent decades, their potential was exploited in many aerogels’ materials, either organic, inorganic or hybrid. Considerable research efforts in recent years have been devoted to the development of aerogel-based biosensors and encouraging accomplishments have been achieved. In this work, recent (2018–2023) and ground-breaking advances in the preparation, classification, and physicochemical properties of aerogels and their sensing applications are presented. Different types of biosensors in which aerogels play a fundamental role are being explored and are collected in this manuscript. Moreover, the current challenges and some perspectives for the development of high-performance aerogel-based biosensors are summarized.

Hydrophobic Silk Fibroin–Agarose Composite Aerogel Fibers with Elasticity for Thermal Insulation Applications

“…Aerogels are three-dimensional nanoporous materials with low density (~0.003-0.5 g/cm 3 ), high porosity (80%~99.8%), a high specific surface area (500-1200 m 2 /g), and low thermal conductivity (~15 mW m −1 K −1 ) [1][2][3]. Benefiting from these excellent characteristics, aerogels have broad application prospects in the fields of thermal insulation [4,5], adsorption [2,6], air purification [7,8], catalysts and catalytic carriers [9], biosensors [10], aerospace [11], etc. [12].…”