great promise for practical applications in a wide variety of technological fields, such
as sensing analysis, molecular imaging, metal extraction, and drug delivery [3–7].
Different kinds of macrocyclic hosts, including crown ether, cyclodextrin,
calixarene, cucurbituril, and pillararene, have successively emerged during the
booming development of supermolecular chemistry. Macrocyclic hosts with their
respective advantages have been widely applied for the construction of sensors. For
example, cyclodextrin-functionalized carbon-based materials (especially graphene
and carbon nanotubes) not only promote the dispersion and stability of carbon-based
materials but also improve the detection sensitivity for some important target
molecules through the formation of host-guest inclusions between cyclodextrin
and guest molecules [8, 9]. Possessing suitable signal conduction path and appropriate number of target-capturing sites, cyclodextrin-functionalized carbon-based
materials have been ideal candidates to construct simple and easy-to-use electrochemical sensors for the accurate monitoring of various trace analytes [10–13]. With
the feature of highly symmetrical and rigid architecture, pillararene is capable of
achieving the selective binding of specific guest molecules. Since anionic watersoluble pillar[6]arene (WP6) and pillar[5]arene (WP5) displayed distinctly different
recognization capability to an aromatic fluorescent dye acridine orange (AO), a
novel host-indicator fluorescence system based on WP6 and AO was established
and successfully applied for the monitoring of choline compounds and enzymatic
reactions [14].
In this chapter, we will give an overview to summarize the recent developments in
the preparation of biosensors based on supermolecular recognization with various
test techniques and signal amplification strategies, highlighting with significant
examples of metal ion detection, nucleic acid analysis, immunoassay, protein
biosensing, and small molecule determination. And we believe that this chapter
will be favorable for researchers to know latest development directions and develop
advanced biosensing methods.
9.2
Biosensing Applications Based on Supermolecular
Recognization
9.2.1 Metal Ion Detection
With rising living standards, the harmful influence of heavy metal pollution on
survival environment of human being has become a major concern in modern society
because of the threaten to human health through the food chain. In view of this
serious issue, the monitoring of trace heavy metal ions is of great importance to the
environmental protection and human safety [15–17]. For example, Ge et al.
constructed the antibacterial and self-healing hybrid coatings using layer-by-layer
(LBL) self-assembly technique for the sensitive monitoring of Co
2+ [18]. Molybdenum disulfide (MoS 2 ) nanosheets with excellent biocompatibility and photoluminescent characteristics were successfully fabricated on the pre-prepared
β-cyclodextrin-modified polyethylenimine/adamantane-modified polyacrylic acid
232
J. Jiang et al.
as sensing analysis, molecular imaging, metal extraction, and drug delivery [3–7].
Different kinds of macrocyclic hosts, including crown ether, cyclodextrin,
calixarene, cucurbituril, and pillararene, have successively emerged during the
booming development of supermolecular chemistry. Macrocyclic hosts with their
respective advantages have been widely applied for the construction of sensors. For
example, cyclodextrin-functionalized carbon-based materials (especially graphene
and carbon nanotubes) not only promote the dispersion and stability of carbon-based
materials but also improve the detection sensitivity for some important target
molecules through the formation of host-guest inclusions between cyclodextrin
and guest molecules [8, 9]. Possessing suitable signal conduction path and appropriate number of target-capturing sites, cyclodextrin-functionalized carbon-based
materials have been ideal candidates to construct simple and easy-to-use electrochemical sensors for the accurate monitoring of various trace analytes [10–13]. With
the feature of highly symmetrical and rigid architecture, pillararene is capable of
achieving the selective binding of specific guest molecules. Since anionic watersoluble pillar[6]arene (WP6) and pillar[5]arene (WP5) displayed distinctly different
recognization capability to an aromatic fluorescent dye acridine orange (AO), a
novel host-indicator fluorescence system based on WP6 and AO was established
and successfully applied for the monitoring of choline compounds and enzymatic
reactions [14].
In this chapter, we will give an overview to summarize the recent developments in
the preparation of biosensors based on supermolecular recognization with various
test techniques and signal amplification strategies, highlighting with significant
examples of metal ion detection, nucleic acid analysis, immunoassay, protein
biosensing, and small molecule determination. And we believe that this chapter
will be favorable for researchers to know latest development directions and develop
advanced biosensing methods.
9.2
Biosensing Applications Based on Supermolecular
Recognization
9.2.1 Metal Ion Detection
With rising living standards, the harmful influence of heavy metal pollution on
survival environment of human being has become a major concern in modern society
because of the threaten to human health through the food chain. In view of this
serious issue, the monitoring of trace heavy metal ions is of great importance to the
environmental protection and human safety [15–17]. For example, Ge et al.
constructed the antibacterial and self-healing hybrid coatings using layer-by-layer
(LBL) self-assembly technique for the sensitive monitoring of Co
2+ [18]. Molybdenum disulfide (MoS 2 ) nanosheets with excellent biocompatibility and photoluminescent characteristics were successfully fabricated on the pre-prepared
β-cyclodextrin-modified polyethylenimine/adamantane-modified polyacrylic acid
232
J. Jiang et al.