Functional solid-state nanochannels for biochemical sensing

Nanochannel typically serves as a passageway of ionic current, which can offer a rapid and highly sensitive output for biochemical sensing. Solid-state nanopores/channels, by virtue of their superior mechanical and chemical stability, well-adjustable structure, and easily tailorable surface properties, draw great attention in practical nanochannel-based sensor devices. Particularly, when functioned by diverse probes, solid-state nanochannel-based sensors present specific recognition for multiple target, including ion, small molecule, nucleic acid, protein and so on. In view of this, we summarize the recent advances in the solid-state nanochannel-based biochemical sensors, classified by targets including ions, small molecules, proteins and nucleic acids. The sensing principles are firstly introduced. Then, the discussion mainly focusses on the different strategies to achieve target detection according to the interaction between targets and functional probes. In the end, some critical challenges about the future development of the functional solid-state nanochannel-based biochemical sensors are briefly proposed. (C) 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.