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Biochemical Sensing with Nanoplasmonic Architectures: We Know How but Do We Know Why?
1Department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Chalmers University of Technology, 41296 Gothenburg, Sweden;
Annual Review of Analytical Chemistry (Palo Alto, Calif.)
|March 24, 2021
Summary
Nanoplasmonic sensors offer advantages over surface plasmon resonance but are useful only in specific cases. Challenges in receptor affinity and binding limit their broad application in biomolecular analysis.
Area of Science:
- Plasmonics
- Nanotechnology
- Biosensing
Background:
- Nanostructured plasmonic sensors offer potential advantages over traditional surface plasmon resonance (SPR) for refractive index-based detection.
- However, their practical utility is often limited to specific applications.
Purpose of the Study:
- To critically evaluate the field of nanoplasmonic sensors for affinity-based detection.
- To compare nanostructured plasmonic sensors with conventional SPR and discuss recent trends and challenges.
Main Methods:
- Review of current literature on nanoplasmonic sensors.
- Analysis of performance claims and limitations.
- Comparison with established surface plasmon resonance techniques.
Main Results:
- Nanostructured plasmonic sensors provide unique benefits in certain situations but are not universally superior to SPR.
- Key challenges include limited receptor affinity and nonspecific binding, overshadowing instrumental performance.
- Some reported extraordinary performances of nanodevices are questioned.
Conclusions:
- While nanoplasmonic sensors have niche applications, conventional SPR is likely to remain dominant for biomolecular interaction analysis.
- Plasmonics may be valuable for analyte detection in complex samples, but not typically via direct refractometric detection.
