Advanced Functional Materials

Abstract

Semiconductor materials in nanoscale are gaining a signifi cant attention in the areas of energy conversion and storage, sensing, electronics, photonics, and biomedicine. Th e parameters such as size, shape, and surface characteristics are signifi cant to control the properties for diff erent applications and thus, semiconducting nanostructured materials of one dimension (1D) are eff ectively used to fabricate a variety of chemosensors. Particularly, the properties of semiconducting nanostructured materials are altered to achieve high fl exibility in various applications. On the other hand, the conducting polymers like polypyrrole, polythiophene, polyaniline, and polyfuran are p-type semiconductors of unique electronic properties, low-energy optical transitions, low ionization potential, and high electron affi nity, which are promising for the application of conductometric polymer sensors. Th e harmful chemicals such as volatile and non-volatile organics are extensively detected by the sensor technology. Th e sensitivity, selectivity, and stability are the most important aspects of investigation for a variety of sensors. Among several sensors, the electrochemical method provides the advantages of high sensitivity, wide linear range, economical, rapid response, portability, and ease of operating procedure.