Sensing using specific and selective receptors provides two very different but complementary strategies. This Sensor Issues article will discuss the merits and challenges of specific sensors, and selective sensors based on synthetic arrays. We will examine where each has been successfully applied to a sensing challenge, and then look at how a combined approach could take elements of both to pro...

variety of polymeric materials were developed as the basis for sequestering and sensing ions in aqueous solution. Polymers were made that can act as selective ion exchange resins. The selectivity can sometimes be made to approach exclusivity and allow the simultaneous removal and purification of a variety of chemicals. This approach can be used to turn waste streams of hazardous chemicals into ...

Catalytic packed bed filters ahead of gas sensors can drastically improve their selectivity, a key challenge in medical, food and environmental applications. Yet, such require high operation temperatures (usually some hundreds °C) impeding integration into low-power (e.g., battery-driven) devices. Here, we reveal room-temperature catalytic that facilitate highly selective acetone sensing, breat...

Fe3O4 magnetic nanoparticles were synthesized by co-precipitation of Fe2+ and Fe3+ in aqueous NaOH. Then silica was coated on the obtained nanoparticles and the whole composite was functionalized with chlorosulfonic acid in CH2Cl2. The obtained nanocomposite (Fe3O4@SiO2-SO3H) was characterized by FT-IR, VSM and XRD techniques and was used as an efficient catalyst in condensation reaction of ind...

fe3o4 magnetic nanoparticles were synthesized by co-precipitation of fe2+ and fe3+ in aqueous naoh. then silica was coated on the obtained nanoparticles and the whole composite was functionalized with chlorosulfonic acid in ch2cl2. the obtained nanocomposite (fe3o4@sio2-so3h) was characterized by ft-ir, vsm and xrd techniques and was used as an efficient catalyst in condensation reaction of ind...

We propose a water-immersed nucleobase-functionalized suspended graphene nanoribbon as an intrinsically selective device for nucleotide detection. The proposed sensing method combines Watson-Crick selective base pairing with graphene's capacity for converting anisotropic lattice strain to changes in an electrical current at the nanoscale. Using detailed atomistic molecular dynamics (MD) simulat...