Hybrid magnetic nanoparticles for electrochemical biosensors

Abstract Hybrid nanomaterials, defined as the combination of at least one nanomaterial with one or more other materials at the nanoscale, generating improved properties that the individual components do not possess, have been shown to be ideal platforms for the construction of highly performance electrochemical sensor and biosensors. Among them, hybrid magnetic nanoparticles (HMNP) have been broadly used in electroanalytical chemistry because they offer outstanding advantages in overcoming the conventional challenges that electrochemical biosensing presents. The greatness of these HMNP comes from the possibility of creatively tuning their properties by the combination of different materials according to the intended end use, which opens new horizons for the future design of better on-demand electrochemical biosensors. This chapter provides a general overview of the main achievements yielded in the use and integration of HMNP as preconcentration, labeling, transduction, and amplification elements for the development of electrochemical biosensing devices in the recent years. The chapter is structured in three main sections focused on the classification of HMNP, their synthesis, and their applications, all in the field of electrochemical biosensors.