Nanostructured organic/hybrid materials and components in miniaturized optical and chemical sensors

In the last decade, biochemical sensors have brought a disruptive breakthrough in analytical chemistry and microbiology due the advent of technologically advanced systems conceived to respond to specific applications. From the design of a multitude of different detection modalities, several classes of sensor have been developed over the years. However, to date they have been hardly used in point-of-care or in-field applications, where cost and portability are of primary concern. In the present review we report on the use of nanostructured organic and hybrid compounds in optoelectronic, electrochemical and plasmonic components as constituting elements of miniaturized and easy-to-integrate biochemical sensors. We show how the targeted design, synthesis and nanostructuring of organic and hybrid materials have enabled enormous progress not only in terms of modulation and optimization of the sensor capabilities and performance when used as active materials, but also in the architecture of the detection schemes when used as structural/packing components. With a particular focus on optoelectronic, chemical and plasmonic components for sensing, we highlight that the new concept of having highly-integrated architectures through a system-engineering approach may enable the full expression of the potential of the sensing systems in real-setting applications in terms of fast-response, high sensitivity and multiplexity at low-cost and ease of portability.