New Developments in Photoelectrochemical Bioanalysis

Photoelectrochemical (PEC) bioanalysis is a newly emerged and rapidly developing analysis technique that provides an elegant route for sensitive bioanalysis.The sensing mechanism of PEC bioanalysis is based on the fact that variations in photocurrent signal can be produced by biological interactions between various recognition elements and their corresponding targets.Owing to its excellent sensitivity, selectivity, and great potential for future bioanalysis, PEC bioanalysis has drawn increasing research attention and substantial progress has been made in its analytical applications.Currently, it has become a hot research topic and its recent momentum has grown rapidly, as demonstrated by the increased number of published research articles.Given the pace of advances in this area, this review first introduces the fundamentals and general instrumentation of this methodology.Then, with recent illustrative examples, we summarize the new developments in PEC bioanalysis according to its main bioanalytical applications, i.e., direct PEC detection of biomolecules, PEC enzymatic bioanalysis, PEC DNA detection, and PEC immunoassay.The future challenges and developments in this field are also discussed.