Sensors design based on hybrid gold-silica nanostructures

Hybrid silica-gold based sensors show attractive performance in sensing technologies. Due to their interesting optical properties and biological compatibility, gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) have been extensively implemented in sensing technology. Hybridization of AuNPs with silica NPs as a material with unique characteristic comprising large surface area, narrow pore distribution, tunable pore size and excellent charge transport provides great opportunity to fabricate promising sensing materials. This review summarizes the current developments on sensing devices based on gold-silica hybrid materials and discussing their interest in designing biosensors for improved analytes detection.