Ordered mesoporous carbon for electrochemical sensing: A review

With its well-ordered pore structure, high specific surface area and tunable pore diameters in the mesopore range, ordered mesoporous carbon (OMC) is suitable for applications in catalysis and sensing. We report recent applications of OMC in electrochemical sensors and biosensors. After a brief description of the electrochemical properties, the functionalization of the OMC for improvement of the electrocatalytic properties is then presented. We show how the ordered mesostructure of OMC is very important in those applications. The high density of edge plane-like defective sites (EDSs), oxygen-containing groups and a large surface area on OMC may provide many favorable sites for electron transfer to compounds, which makes OMC a potential novel material for an investigation of the electrochemical behavior of substances. Moreover, the structural capabilities of OMC at the scale of a few nanometers agree with immobilization of other electrocataytic substances. Interesting properties of this material may open up a new approach to study the electrochemical determination of other biomolecules. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.