In this study, a potentiometric urea biosensor has been fabricated on glass filter paper through the immobilization of urease enzyme onto chitosan/cobalt oxide (CS/Co3O4) nanocomposite. A copper wire with diameter of 500 mu m is attached with nanoparticles to extract the voltage output signal. The shape and dimensions of Co3O4 magnetic nanoparticles are investigated by scanning electron microscopy and the average diameter is approximately 80-100 nm. Structural quality of Co3O4 nanoparticles is confirmed from X-ray powder diffraction measurements, while the Raman spectroscopy has been used to understand the chemical bonding between different atoms. The magnetic measurement has confirmed that Co3O4 nanoparticles show ferromagnetic behavior, which could be attributed to the uncompensated surface spins and/or finite size effects. The ferromagnetic order of Co3O4 nanoparticles is raised with increasing the decomposition temperature. A physical adsorption method is adopted to immobilize the surface of CS/Co3O4 nanocomposite. Potentiometric sensitivity curve has been measured over the concentration range between 1 x 10(-4) and 8 x 10(-2) M of urea electrolyte solution revealing that the fabricated biosensor holds good sensing ability with a linear slope curve of similar to 45 mV/decade. In addition, the presented biosensor shows good reusability, selectivity, reproducibility and resistance against interferers along with the stable output response of similar to 12 s.

Generally, the anisotropic shape of inorganic nano-crystal can be influenced by one or more of different parameters i.e. kinetic energy barrier, temperature, time, and the nature of the capping molecules. Here, different surfactants acting as capping molecules were used to assist the aqueous chemical growth of zinc oxide (ZnO) nanostructures on Au coated glass substrates. The morphology, crystal quality and the photoluminescence (PL) properties of the ZnO nanostructures were investigated. The PL properties of the prepared ZnO nanostructures at room temperature showed a dominant UV luminescence peak, while the "green yellow" emissions were essentially suppressed. Moreover, the ZnO nanostructures were investigated for the development of a glucose biosensor. An adsorbed molecule has direct contribution on the glucose oxidase/ZnO/Au sensing properties. We show that the performance of a ZnO-based biosensor can be improved by tailoring the properties of the ZnO biomolecule interface through engineering of the morphology, effective surface area, and adsorption capability.

Zinc oxide (ZnO) nanosheets, nickel oxide (NiO) nanoflowers and their nanocomposite were grown on the fluorine doped tin oxide (FTO) substrate. The supramolecules-assisted ZnO growth by a hydrothermal method used to tune the morphology of the grown ZnO nanostructures to nanosheets morphology. The synthesis, purity and the optical properties of the grown material were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), x-ray diffraction (XRD), UV-visible spectrometry and photoluminescence (PL) analysis. The current-voltage (I-V) characterization of the ZnO/NiO heterojunction was performed at room temperature and showed an obvious nonlinear and rectifying response. A strong UV absorption with fast switching was observed from the ZnO/NiO composite heterojunction. The proposed UV photodetector based on this nano-composite is more stable, possesses fast rising and decaying time response approximately 100 ms and low leakage current was investigated. The findings indicate that the importance of the use of controlled nanostructures morphology for developing efficient nanodevices for various applications

The notch signalling plays a vital and radical role for the activity of cellular proliferation, differentiation and apoptosis. In this study, for the first time a particular biosensor is developed for the detection of notch 3. ZnO nanorods were fabricated on the gold coated glass substrate by hydrothermal method and afterwards were decorated with the gold nanoparticles by electrodepositing technique. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) has shown the perpendicular to the substrate growth pattern of ZnO nanorods. X-ray diffraction (XRD) studies showed the c-axis oriented growth direction with wurtzite crystal structure of ZnO nanorods. X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) and energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) techniques have shown the presence of Zn, O and Au atoms in the prepared functional material. Furthermore, the anti-notch 3 was physically adsorbed on the gold nanoparticles functionalized ZnO nanorods. The developed potentiometric immunosensor has shown response to the wide range of notch 3 molecules. The detected range included 1.00 x 10(-5)-1.50 x 10(0) mu g/mL with a sensitivity of 23.15 +/- 0.31 mV/decade. The analytical parameters including reproducibility, stability, and selectivity were also investigated and the observed results indicate the acceptable performance of the notch 3 biosensor. Moreover, the proposed notch 3 biosensor exhibited a fast response time of 10 s.

In this work, ZnO nanorods were hydrothermally grown on the gold-coated glass substrate and characterized by field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) techniques. The ZnO nanorods were functionalized by two different approaches and performance of the sensor electrode was monitored. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) was carried out for the confirmation of interaction between the ionophore molecules and ZnO nanorods. In addition to this, the surface of the electrode was characterized by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) showing the chemical and electronic state of the ionophore and ZnO nanorod components. The ionophore solution was prepared in the stabilizer, poly vinyl chloride (PVC) and additives, and then functionalized on the ZnO nanorods that have shown the Nernstian response with the slope of 31 mV/decade. However, the Cu2+ ion sensor was fabricated only by immobilizing the selective copper ion ionophore membrane without the use of PVC, plasticizers, additives and stabilizers and the sensor electrode showed a linear potentiometric response with a slope of 56.4 mV/decade within a large dynamic concentration range (from 1.0 x 10(-6) to 1.0 x 10(-1) M) of copper (II) nitrate solutions. The sensor showed excellent repeatability and reproducibility with response time of less than 10 s. The negligible response to potentially interfering metal ions such as calcium (Ca2+), magnesium (Mg2+), potassium (K+), iron (Fe3+), zinc (Zn2+), and sodium (Na+) allows this sensor to be used in biological studies. It may also be used as an indicator electrode in the potentiometric titration.

The selective detection of dopamine (DA) is of great importance in the modern medicine because dopamine is one of the main regulators in human behaviour. In this study, ZnO/CuO nanohybrid structures, grown on the gold coated glass substrate, have been investigated as a novel electrode material for the electrochemical detection of dopamine. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) techniques were used for the material characterization and the obtained results are in good agreement. The selective determination of dopamine was demonstrated by cyclic voltammetry (CV) and amperometric experiments. The amperometric response was linear for dopamine concentrations between 1.0 x 10(-3) and 8.0 mM with a sensitivity of 90.9 mu A mM(-1) cm(-2). The proposed dopamine biosensor is very stable, selective over common interferents as glucose, uric acid and ascorbic acid, and also good reproducibility was observed for seven electrodes. Moreover, the dopamine sensor exhibited a fast response time of less than 10 s. The wide range and acceptable sensitivity of the presented dopamine sensor provide the possible application in analysing the dopamine from the real samples.

Present work is an effort to reveal the junction properties of gold/zinc oxide (ZnO) nanorods-based Schottky diode by using the frequency dependent electrical properties. The most important electrical parameters such as conductance, resistance, capacitance, and impedance were studied as function of frequency across the series of AC voltages. Moreover, current density-voltage (J-V) was measured to know the performance of present Schottky diode. The effect of native defects was also studied by using cathodoluminescence spectroscopy measured at different accelerating voltage. The textile substrate was used for the growth of ZnO nanorods by using the aqueous chemical growth method and Schottky diode fabrication. Diode fabrication on textile fabric is a step forward toward the fabrication of electronic devices on nonconventional, economical, soft, light weight, flexible, wearable, washable, recyclable, reproducible, and nontoxic substrate.

Composite nanostructures of coral reefs like p-type NiO on n-type ZnO nanorods have been decorate on fluorine-doped tin oxide glass substrates by the hydrothermal growth. Structural characterization was performed by field emission scanning electron microscopy,  high-resolution transmission electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction techniques. This investigation has shown that the adopted synthesis has led to high crystalline quality nanostructures. Morphological study shows that the coral reefs like nanostructures are densely packed on the ZnO nanorods. Cathodoluminescence (CL) spectra for the synthesized composite nanostructures were dominated by a near band gap emission at 380 nm and by a broad interstitial defect related luminescence centered at ~630 nm. Spatially resolved CL images reveal that the luminescence originates mainly from the ZnO nanorods.

Herein we report an electrochemical DNA biosensor for the rapid detection of sequence (5’ AAT GGA TTT ATC TGC TCT TCG 3’) specific for the breast cancer 1 (BRCA1) gene. The proposed electrochemical genosensor is based on short oligonucleotide DNA probe immobilized onto zinc oxide nanowires (ZnONWs) chemically synthesized onto gold electrode via hydrothermal technique. The morphology studies of the ZnONWs, performed by field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), showed that the ZnO nanowires are uniform, highly dense and oriented perpendicularly to the substrate. Recognition event between the DNA probe and the target was investigated by differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) in 0.1 M acetate buffer solution (ABS), pH 7.00; as a result of the hybridization, an oxidation signal was observed at +0.8 V. The influences of pH, target concentration, and non-complimentary DNA on biosensor performance were examined. The proposed DNA biosensor has the ability to detect the target sequence in the range of concentration between 10.0 and 100.0 µM with a detection limit of 3.32 µM. The experimental results demonstrated that the prepared ZnONWs/Au electrodes are suitable platform for the immobilization of DNA.

Glass is the conventional material used in pH electrodes to monitor pH in various applications. However, the glass-based pH electrode has some limitations for particular applications. The glass sensor is limited in the use of in vivo biomedical, clinical or food applications because of the brittleness of glass, its large size, the difficulty in measuring small volumes and the absence of deformation (inflexibility). Nanostructure-based pH sensors are very sensitive, reliable, fast and applicable towards in vivo measurements. In this study, nanoporous NiO nanostructures are synthesized on a gold-coated glass substrate by a hydrothermal route using poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) as a stabilizer. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) techniques were used for the morphological and crystalline studies. The grown NiO nanostructures are uniform and dense, and they possess good crystallinity. A pH sensor based on these NiO nanostructures was developed by testing the different pH values from 2-12 of phosphate buffered saline solution. The proposed pH sensor showed robust sensitivity of -43.74 +/- 0.80 mV/pH and a quick response time of less than 10 s. Moreover, the repeatability, reproducibility and stability of the presented pH sensor were also studied.