Advances in Biosensing and Environmental Monitoring Based on Electrospun Nanofibers

Electrospun nanofibers (NFs) are directly produced by electrospinning technology. They are useful in a series of applications such as excellent performance in biosensing and environmental monitoring, due to their large specific surface area and high porosity. The wide range of materials used provide a solid foundation and core guarantee for electrospun NFs to sense, which are used in a variety of polymers, small molecules, colloidal particles, and composites. Biosensing primarily aims at small biomolecules, biomacromolecules, wearable human motion monitoring, and food safety testing. Environmental monitoring encompasses the detection of gases, humidity, volatile organic compounds, and monitoring the degradation of heavy metal ions. We aim to sort out some recent research for electrospun NFs in the sensing area, which may inspire emerging smart sensing devices and bring a novel approach for biomedical development and environmental remediation. We highlight the powerful applications of electrospun NFs in the rapidly growing field of wearable electronic devices, which may spur the industry’s novel perspectives on the development of wearables. Finally, we point out some unresolved difficulties in the sensing field for electrospun NFs and propose possible and novel ideas for this development.Graphical abstract