Electrochemical analysis based on nanoporous structures.

Analytical applications and the underlying principles of unique electrochemistry in nanoporous structures are reviewed and discussed. In addition to the conventional concept of enlarged surface area, the structural effects of nanoporous materials can play significant roles such as discriminative electrokinetics, the nano-confinement effect, electrical double layer overlapping, ion-selective impedance, etc. The applications described in this review article include solid-state pH sensors, miniaturized pseudo-reference electrodes, nonenzymatic glucose monitoring, ion diodes, transistors, extracellular neural probes, and a few more. Further intensive research is required to develop creative analytical tools based on nanoporous structures and to unravel the underlying physicochemical principles.