Introduction to Low-Dimensional Materials for Biosensor Fabrication

Sensors are a class of devices that respond to a stimulus and are utilized for identifying (and often quantifying) changes in the external environment. Biological sensors, or biosensors, combine a biological component with a physicochemical detector and are key to ensuring safety in the food, agriculture, and healthcare industries. Of late, with the advancement of nanotechnology, low-dimensional materials, having one dimension (1D) or having only two dimensions (2D), have proven to be effective for the fabrication of sensors that have shown high reliability and reproducibility. Such low-dimensional materials are highly tunable in terms of their electrical, optical, and mechanical properties, making them ideal for sensor fabrication. This chapter introduces such low-dimensional materials that can be utilized to fabricate biosensors for applications in the food, agriculture, and healthcare industries. The synthesis of 0D, 1D, and 2D materials will be covered, focusing on case-specific modifications targeting biosensor applications.