Recent advances in field-effect transistor sensing strategies for fast and highly efficient analysis of heavy metal ions

Abstract

Heavy metal ions are highly toxic for living organisms especially after bioaccumulation and biomagnification, which possess a serious threat to human health and ecological environment. The rapid, portable, and efficient analytical methods are urgently needed for the determination of heavy metals in different media. Due to the unique advantages of field-effect transistor (FET) sensors including fast response, easy manipulation, small size, and high sensitivity, FET sensor has become a novel strategy for heavy metal ion monitoring and numerous attempts have been made for the analysis of various heavy metal ions (e.g., mercury, lead, arsenic, copper, cadmium, iron, and silver) in the past decade. Thus, it is of urgent need to systematically summarize recent advances of FET sensing strategies in fast and highly efficient detection of heavy metal ions. In this review, the representative FET sensing platforms for heavy metal ions are introduced with a focus on their working principle and sensing performance. Moreover, the limitations of current FET sensors as well as the gap between the research achievements and practical application requirements are also discussed. At last, future directions of FET sensors in heavy metal ion analysis are proposed, which provides guidance to the further development of FET sensors for monitoring heavy metal ions as well as other chemicals.