Nano-impact electrochemistry: Analysis of single bioentities.

A central challenge of sensor technology is that the sensitivity of analytical detection is required to reach a single analyte entity level, whether it is a molecule, a cell or a nanoparticle. The emergence of nano-impact electrochemistry (NIE) allows in situ detection of single analyte entity one at a time with simplicity, fast response and high throughput. NIE method was originally designed to characterize physical and chemical properties of the corresponding single nanoparticles, and has been later extended into the field of bio-analysis, enabling better understanding of biological heterogeneity and providing new route for developing new diagnostic devices for quantifying biological analytes. A wide range of biological species including DNA, RNA, enzymes, bacteria, vesicles and cells has been already studied using NIE method so far. In this review, we first summarize the basic principles of NIE for bio-analyte detection and then elaborate NIE based bio-analysis categorized by analyte types. Finally, we give an outlook on the future prospects of this field. • Principles of nano-impact electrochemistry based bio-detection are summarized. • Nano-impact electrochemistry based detection of single bioentities is comprehensively reviewed. • New perspectives on nano-impact electrochemistry towards bio-analytes analysis are presented. • Nano-impact electrochemistry is a powerful analytical tool for the detection of a wide range of single bioentities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]