Anal Bioanal Chem (2011) 399:1005–1006 DOI 10.1007/s00216-010-4331-2

BOOKS AND SOFTWARE IN REVIEW

Jiří Janata: Principles of chemical sensors, 2nd ed. María Cruz Moreno-Bondi

Published online: 24 October 2010 # Springer-Verlag 2010

Bibliography Principles of chemical sensors, 2nd ed. Jiří Janata Springer ISBN: 978-0-387-69930-1 Hardcover, 340 pages, May 2009, €74.95

Book’s topic Chemical sensors and biosensors are becoming part of our daily life and advances in this field are being reported at a rapid pace. The second edition of Principles of chemical sensors by Jiří Janata introduces the main operating principles of chemical sensors, avoiding a detailed description of sensor types and applications. To that aim, the author has tried to link the different areas involved in chemical sensor development, including chem-

M. C. Moreno-Bondi (*) Group of Optical Sensors and Laboratory of Applied Photochemistry (GSOLFA), Department of Analytical Chemistry, Faculty of Chemistry, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, 28040 Madrid, Spain e-mail: [email protected]

istry, physics, and engineering, to prepare a teaching book, rather than a very specific and detailed text on this topic. Contents The book is organized in ten chapters. The introductory chapter focuses on the description of common sensor terminology, followed by a detailed discussion of the origin of the different response curves that can be obtained with chemical sensors. Chapter 2 examines different issues related to sensor selectivity from the equilibrium, kinetic, and mass transport points of view. This chapter includes a brief description of the role of “classical” (antibodies, nucleotides, enzymes) and relatively new recognition elements, such as aptamers and molecularly imprinted polymers, in sensor selectivity. Basic concepts for the design of selective layers for sensor development are presented too. Chapter 3 summarizes the basic principles of thermal sensors and describes some selected examples, including the glucose thermistor, catalytic gas sensors, and the miniaturized pellistor, in greater detail. Chapter 4 presents the principles of operation of the main types of mass sensors, including those based on piezoelectric oscillators as well as those based on microfabricated cantilevers. Four chapters are devoted to electrochemical sensors, as stated by the author, the largest and oldest group of chemical sensors. Chapter 5 describes the general parameters and characteristics of these devices and Chaps. 6– 8 deal with potentiometric, amperometric, and conductometric sensors. This field has not traditionally been a favorite of students and the author tries to overcome this situation using selected “thought experiments,” which are easily understood, to explain the basic electrochemical relationships and elucidate expected results. Chapter 5 is

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followed by the most extensive chapter of the book, devoted to potentiometric sensors for ion and neutral species. Amperometric sensors, with special emphasis on oxygen electrodes, modified electrodes, and amperometric biosensors are discussed in Chap. 7. Optical sensors are explained only in Chap. 9, which begins with an introduction to the corpuscular and waveguide properties of light and their role in several measuring principles applied in optical sensing (absorption, luminescence, reflectance). Different ways to achieve selectivity using optical arrays, biomolecules, or selective indicators are also discussed. The last chapter focuses on multivariate sensing, a topic that is not usually covered in general books on chemical sensors. The author includes a brief discussion of high-order sensors and sensor arrays and devotes a section to the techniques most commonly applied in multivariate analysis (principal component analysis, principal component regression, partial least squares, self-organized maps, neural networks, etc.). It also includes an interesting section on the application of dynamic data to multivariate analysis. The book contains a large number of illustrations, many of them in color, that complement the text. The book also contains four appendices on thermodynamics (Appendix A), kinetics (Appendix B), solid-state physics (Appendix C), and conversions of equivalent electrical circuits (Appendix D) to help students with different backgrounds understand some of the concepts discussed in the text. Finally, the end of each chapter includes a "food-forthought" section, addressed to college or graduate college instructors which, according to the author, is intended to provoke probing questions about sensing schemes. This section will be updated on a Web site (http://www.chemistry. gatech.edu/faculty/Janata/) that has been established as a permanent “blog” to supplement the book. Comparison with existing literature The book is considered by the author to be a “teaching” book for graduate students and, in fact, it gives a very broad overview of the main working principles of chemical sensors. There are other general books on this topic [1, 2], some of them specially devoted to graduate students. For instance, Chemical sensors and biosensors edited by Eggins [3] uses an open learning format to help the reader understand this subject and Chemical sensors. An introduction for scientists and engineers edited by Gründler [4] includes a general overview of the principles as well as of different application areas for sensors. In most cases, the literature on this topic is more specialized and devoted to a single type of device, such as electrochemical [5] or optical [6–8] sensors and biosensors [9, 10]. Critical assessment This book is addressed to students of chemistry, physics, and engineering who want to gain

M.C. Moreno-Bondi

knowledge of the working principles of chemical sensors. One of the research areas of Jiří Janata is electrochemical sensors and in the chapters devoted to these types of devices they are treated in great detail and with clarity. In the case of potentiomeric sensors, some basic concepts could have been omitted, as they can be found in any analytical chemistry book. The chapters devoted to thermal and mass-sensitive sensors include a good introduction to these types of devices that are usually the “great forgotten” in general books on chemical sensors. Optical sensors should have been treated in more detail. Nevertheless, this is an excellent “teaching” book for graduate and master students that can be complemented, in some areas, with more specialized texts. At the same time, experienced researchers in this field can also find useful information on basic concepts of sensing principles. Summary Chemical sensors are part of our lives and find application in many different areas. Their development requires the collaboration of specialists in different areas and Principles of chemical sensors gives a broad and clear overview of the principles of chemical sensors that may provide the reader with basic knowledge of this field. Each chapter describes a different type of transducer, including thermal, mass, optical, and, with special emphasis, electrochemical ones. In conclusion, this is a good “teaching” book on chemical sensors that could be used in introductory courses on this topic.

References 1. Göpel W, Hesse J, Zemel JN (eds) (1997) Chemical and biochemical sensors. Part 1: a comprehensive survey, vol 2, 1st edn. Wiley-VCH, Weinheim 2. Göpel W, Hesse J, Zemel JN (eds) (1997) Chemical and biochemical sensors. Part 2: a comprehensive survey, vol 3, 1st edn. Wiley-VCH, Weinheim 3. Eggins BR (ed) (2002) Chemical sensors and biosensors. Analytical techniques in the sciences. Wiley-VCH, Weinheim 4. Gründler P (ed) (2007) Chemical sensors. An introduction for scientists and engineers. Springer, Berlin 5. Alegret S, Merkoci A (eds) (2007) Electrochemical sensor analysis. Wilson & Wilson’s comprehensive analytical chemistry, vol 49. Elsevier, Amsterdam 6. Narayanaswamy R, Wolfbeis OS (eds) (2004) Optical sensors: industrial, environmental and diagnostic applications. Springer series on chemical sensors and biosensors, vol 1. Springer, Berlin 7. Orellana G, Moreno-Bondi MC (eds) (2005) Frontiers in chemical sensors: novel principles and techniques. Springer series on chemical sensors and biosensors, vol 3. Springer, Berlin 8. Homola J (ed) (2006) Surface plasmon resonance based sensors. Springer series on chemical sensors and biosensors, vol 4. Springer, Berlin 9. Bartlett PN (ed) (2008) Bioelectrochemistry: fundamentals, experimental techniques and applications. Wiley, Chichester 10. Ligler F (ed) (2008) Optical biosensors: today and tomorrow. Elsevier, Amsterdam