A review on amperometric immunoassays for tumor markers based on the use of hybrid materials consisting of conducting polymers and noble metal nanomaterials

Conducting polymers possess good conductivity, can be easily modified, have a particular redox activity. Noble metal nanomaterials, in turn, possess high conductivity, catalytic properties and large surface-to-volume ratios. Synergistic materials consisting of both conducting polymer and metal nanomaterial therefore are most useful materials for use in electrochemical immunosensors with improved sensitivity and specificity. This review (with 75 references) gives an overview on advances in conducting polymer based noble metal nanomaterial hybrids for amperometric immunoassay of the 13 most common tumor markers. The review is divided into the following sections: (1) Polyaniline based noble metal nanomaterial hybrids; (2) Polyaniline derivative-based noble metal nanomaterial hybrids; (3) Polypyrrole-based noble metal nanomaterial hybrids. A final section covers future perspectives regarding challenges on the design of electrochemical immunoassays.