Conducting Polymer Nanocomposites for Sensor Applications

Due to numerous potential applications of conducting polymers, these materials are now world wide studied since the discovery of first conducting polymer (polyacetylene) in 1977. Particularly for sensing concerned, conducting polymers are very sensitive to environmental conditions. The developments in nanostructure conducting polymers and conducting polymer nanocomposites have large impact on sensor research. Due to large surface-area-to-volume ratio of nanostructure conducting polymers, they show superior performance compared to conducting polymers in bulk form. However, the sensitivity and selectivity of nanostructure conducting polymer-based sensors still leave room for improvement. The conducting polymer nanocomposites have gained tremendous recognition in the field of sensors to improve the sensitivity and selectivity due to synergistic effect of size reduction for nanofiller and high electrical conductivity of conducting polymer in nanocomposites. Therefore, the sensitivity and selectivity of conducting polymer nanocomposites-based sensors have been enhanced compared to that of the classical materials-based sensors. This chapter provides the current research activities of the sensors/biosensors based on conducting polymer nanocomposites. The synthesis of nanostructure conducting polymers and conducting polymer nanocomposites, their application in sensors/biosensors are reviewed and discussed in this chapter.