Diamonds for Life: Developments in Sensors for Biomolecules

Abstract

Diamond-based electrodes and biosensors are interesting in analytics because of their particular set of properties, namely: large potential window, chemical inertness, low baseline current, stability, and transparency. Diamond-based electrodes and biosensors were shown to detect biological molecules such as neurotransmitters and proteins, respectively. In this review, we summarise the different types of diamond electrodes and biosensors based on their type of detection (electrochemical or optical), functionalisation, and target analyte. The last section presents a discussion on the different analytical responses obtained with electrodes or biosensors, according to the type of analyte. Electrodes work quite well for detecting small molecules with redox properties, whereas biosensors are more suited for detecting molecules with a high molecular weight, such as DNA and proteins.