Diamond-based Resonators for Chemical Detection

Abstract

Chemical/biochemical sensors are devices that transform chemical or biological information into an analytically useful signal. Generally speaking, they are the result of coupling a selective layer to a physical part known as the transducer. The sensors may be classified according to the operating principle of the transducer. In brief, the main transduction phenomena are optical, electrochemical, electrical and gravimetric. 1 A wide variety of innovative chemical and biochemical sensor technologies are being reported in the literature every year, often showing highly promising performances. However, when it comes to commercial sensors, one has to admit that the market is very conservative. A possible explanation for this is the lack of robustness and reliability of the newly developed sensors and, therefore, their difficulty to maintain performance specifications under adverse operating conditions. 2 The robustness of the sensors is linked, on the one hand, to their ability to withstand mechanical shocks, stresses, or vibrations. On the other hand, it is related the chemical stability of the selective layer in the operating environment. The variety of exceptional physicochemical properties of diamond materials are generally extremely resilient to chemical degradation. They also feature outstanding mechanical properties, such as a high Young's RSC Nanoscience & Nanotechnology No.