Combination of conjugated polyelectrolytes and biomolecules: A new optical platform for highly sensitive and selective chemo- and biosensors

Conjugated polyelectrolytes (CPEs) have been studied extensively as the optical platform for chemo- and biosensor applications with high sensitivity by virtue of their light harvesting effect. A range of fluorescent CPEsbased sensing schemes have been developed by utilizing fluorescence quenching via photo-induced electron transfer and fluorescence resonance energy transfer, etc. Highly sensitive and selective detection assays can be realized by combining the tunable optical properties of synthetic CPEs with specific binding characteristics of biomolecules (such as aptamer, antibody, protein, etc.). This article reviews the range of fluorescence-based optical assays with the CPEs-biomolecule complex as a signaling platform with in situ detection, remarkable sensitivity and selectivity, etc.