Paper Title
Applications Of Nanomaterials As A Sensors

Abstract
-Nanostructured materials are a new class of materials, having dimensions in the 1~100 nm range, which provide one of the greatest potentials for improving performance and extended capabilities of products in a number of industrial sectors. Nanostructures can be divided into zero-dimensional (0D when they are uniform), one-dimensional (1D when they are elongated), and two-dimensional (2D when they are planar) based on their shapes. In recent years, the nanostructures for sensor device applications have been highly developed in various fields, due to their flexibility and light weight for daily use. Therefore, the field of sensor device has been the subject of reviews. Sensor devices are environmentally sustainable, in particular, considering the availability of the nanostructured raw materials. Nanomaterials are well known to possess excellent electrical, optical, thermal, catalytic properties and strong mechanical strength, which offer great opportunities to construct nanomaterials-based sensors or devices for monitoring environmental contaminations in air, water and soil. Various nanomaterials, such as carbon nanotubes, gold nanoparticles, silicon nanowires and quantum dots, have been extensively explored in detecting and measuring toxic metal ions, toxic gases, pesticides, and hazardous industrial chemicals with high sensitivity, selectivity and simplicity. Keywords : Nanomaterials, Sensors, Optical sensors, magnetic sensors, Electrical sensors, mechanical INTRODUCTION : Nanomaterials are well known to possess excellent electrical, optical, thermal, catalytic properties and strong mechanical strength, which offer great opportunities to construct nanomaterials-based sensors or devices for monitoring environmental contaminations in air, water and soil. Various nanomaterials, such as carbon nanotubes, gold nanoparticles, silicon nanowires and quantum dots, have been extensively explored in detecting and measuring toxic metal ions, toxic gases, pesticides, and hazardous industrial chemicals with high sensitivity, selectivity and simplicity.This Special Issue of Nanomaterials is focused on the continuing implementation of nanomaterials and nanostructures in the development of more sensitive and more specific sensing devices. As a result, these new devices employ smaller sensing elements and provide more “real time” capability. Often, the inclusion of nanomaterials leads to sensing elements for targets that were previously inaccessible. The nanostructures employed in sensor development include (among others): nanowires, semiconductor particles, various allotropes of carbon and imprinted polymeric spheres. Nanoparticles, in general, exhibit physical properties that not only differ from the parent bulk material, but also from other nanoparticles that are of different dimensions. This uniqueness offers more opportunity