Recent advances in inorganic functional nanomaterials based flexible electrochemical sensors

The flexible electrochemical sensor is a key component of the health monitoring system which can continuously track the physiological signals of the human body, while there is no obvious discomfort and invasiveness. Therefore, it has great potential in personalized medical testing. However, the development of flexible electrochemical sensors currently faces many difficulties, such as the limitations of conductive material properties and manufacturing methods, and the disadvantages of commonly used flexible substrates that are not resistant to high temperatures. In this work, inorganic nanomaterials commonly used to make flexible electrochemical sensors were classified to zero-dimensional (0D) nanomaterials, one-dimensional (1D) nanomaterials, two-dimensional (2D) nanomaterials, and hybrid nanomaterials according to their morphology. The fabrication method of the nanomaterials-based flexible electrochemical sensors was also introduced. Furthermore, the application of flexible electrochemical sensors for chemical and biological sensing and their detection performance were summarized. The detection targets were classified to ion, small molecule, biomacromolecule, and bacteria, respectively.