Conductive polymer nanocomposites: recent advances in the construction of electrochemical biosensors

Accompanying the fast development of clinical medicine and materials science, electrochemical biosensors continue to play a significant role in relation to disease diagnosis due to their short time to result, sensitivity and low cost. Since the 2000 Nobel Prize was awarded to conductive polymers (CPs), CP nanocomposites (CPNs) have gradually gained attention in the construction of electrochemical biosensors. Particularly in the last decade, the research hotspot shifted to the precise nanostructure control of CPNs in order to obtain regular geometric shapes enabling improved analytical performance of fabricated biosensors. In this review, we mainly focus on recent progress of regular-nanostructured CPNs used to construct advanced electrochemical biosensors. Emphasis will be placed on the nanostructure control approaches in relation to CPNs comprised of various CPs and their doping materials including metal, metal oxide, carbon materials and coordination compounds. Moreover, we carefully discuss the advantages and disadvantages of these CPNs and their impact on performance according to the various transduction and recognition principles of electrochemical biosensors, such as enzyme electrodes, apta and immunosensors. Finally, we look ahead to the main challenges and prospective research directions for CPNs based electrochemical biosensors.