Conducting polymer nanowires for chemiresistive and FET-based bio/chemical sensors

Conducting polymer nanostructures are emerging materials with tremendous potential for conductometric/field effect transistor (FET) bio/chemical sensors because of their chemical sensitivity and biocompatibility. Herein, we review recent developments in conducting polymer nanowire-based sensors and discuss the impact of several milestones and continuing challenges. Particular attention is given to device fabrication, nanostructure performance enhancement, and functionalization schemes. Several assembly and integration techniques have been developed for single nanowire devices but significant progress is still needed to improve scalability and manufacturability. Future work should focus on high throughput approaches that enable combinatorial screening of conducting polymer nanowires and heterogeneous, high density arrays of conducting polymer nanostructures, deterministically tailored for targeted analytes. The spatial and temporal resolution of conducting polymer nanowires is addressed along with the origin of the sensitivity enhancement. Functionalization routes add another degree of complexity for biosensors and are discussed in the context of nanosensor performance and device fabrication.