23. II–VI Semiconductor QDs in Surface Plasmon Resonance Sensors

Surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensors provide attractive performance in real-time gas sensing and biomolecular binding events. SPR is rapidly developing a label-free technique capable of measuring real-time quantitative binding affinities and kinetics for biological samples. The working principle section on electromagnetic theory describes the light-matter interaction at the metal-semiconductor interface. The SPR theory explained a short representation of the excitation of the surface plasmon and the constructions of an SPR sensor. The SPR biosensor sections demonstrate the plasmonic characteristics of semiconductor nanostructures and their performance in optics, fabrication, functionalisation and biosensing. The sensor limitation is described from an enhancement perspective. The gas sensing section describes some recent advances in SPR-based technology to detect the volatile molecules and the future potential of the SPR technique. Metal oxide semiconducting nanoparticles are also covered in the gas sensing section. Finally, functionalised semiconductor nanoparticles are summarised to introduce the biomolecular interactions in the SPR sensors. The use of semiconductor features in SPR will be promising for future environmental monitoring sensors, with many advantages for label-free sensing technologies in every aspect.