Device Architecture and Biosensing Applications for Attractive One- and Two-Dimensional Nanostructures

In the past decade, a myriad of novel nanoscale materials have been discovered and/or synthesized. New device architectures configured with these novel nanomaterials have been fabricated for innovative experiments and practical applications in electronics, optoelectronics, biosensors, and more. In this chapter, we introduce attractive one-dimensional (1D) and two-dimensional (2D) nanostructures and their fabricated device architectures for biosensing applications. In particular, this chapter focuses on 1D silicon nanowires and 2D graphene. We first describe the preparation and synthesis methods that have been used to generate these nanomaterials. The unique characteristics of these nanostructures and their physical, chemical, mechanical, and electrical properties are discussed. Current techniques for device fabrication are introduced. Examples of various biological and cellular applications are also included. Field-effect transistor devices constructed from 1D silicon nanowires and 2D graphene sheets are described, and we discuss biosensors for the investigation of protein–protein interactions, neural signal transmission, viral infection diagnosis, biomolecular detection, nucleic acid screening and sequencing, and real-time cellular recording.