Intelligent Optical Imaging and Sensing Group, Zhejiang Laboratory, Hangzhou 311121, China.
Biosensors (Basel). 2022 Mar 29;12(4):205. doi: 10.3390/bios12040205.
Liquid crystals (LCs), as the remarkable optical materials possessing stimuli-responsive property and optical modulation property simultaneously, have been utilized to fabricate a wide variety of optical devices. Integrating the LCs and receptors together, LC biosensors aimed at detecting various biomolecules have been extensively explored. Compared with the traditional biosensing technologies, the LC biosensors are simple, visualized, and efficient. Owning to the irreplaceable superiorities, the research enthusiasm for the LC biosensors is rapidly rising. As a result, it is necessary to overview the development of the LC biosensors to guide future work. This article reviews the basic theory and advanced applications of LC biosensors. We first discuss different mesophases and geometries employed to fabricate LC biosensors, after which we introduce various detecting mechanisms involved in biomolecular detection. We then focus on diverse detection targets such as proteins, enzymes, nucleic acids, glucose, cholesterol, bile acids, and lipopolysaccharides. For each of these targets, the development history and state-of-the-art work are exhibited in detail. Finally, the current challenges and potential development directions of the LC biosensors are introduced briefly.
液晶（LCs）作为同时具有刺激响应性和光学调制性的出色光学材料，已被广泛用于制造各种光学器件。将 LCs 和受体集成在一起，旨在检测各种生物分子的 LC 生物传感器已经得到了广泛的探索。与传统的生物传感技术相比，LC 生物传感器简单、可视化且高效。由于其不可替代的优势，对 LC 生物传感器的研究热情正在迅速上升。因此，有必要对 LC 生物传感器的发展进行综述，以指导未来的工作。本文综述了 LC 生物传感器的基本理论和先进应用。我们首先讨论了用于制造 LC 生物传感器的不同中间相和几何形状，然后介绍了涉及生物分子检测的各种检测机制。接着，我们重点介绍了各种检测目标，如蛋白质、酶、核酸、葡萄糖、胆固醇、胆汁酸和脂多糖。对于每个目标，都详细展示了其发展历史和最新进展。最后，简要介绍了 LC 生物传感器的当前挑战和潜在发展方向。
