Engineering two-dimensional electronic biosensors

Abstract

The combination of exceptional electrical, mechanical, geometrical and chemical properties of two-dimensional materials has enabled highly sensitive detection of biological and environmental signals and opened new frontiers in biosensing. Graphene has pioneered much of this progress, yet the broader landscape of two-dimensional materials, comprising hundreds of experimentally validated and thousands of theoretically predicted materials, offers vast, largely untapped potential. The field is now at a critical stage where device sensitivity must be matched by improvements in selectivity, stability, reproducibility and operation under physiological conditions. This Perspective reviews the current state-of-the-art in two-dimensional materials-based biosensors, highlighting their key advances and drawbacks. We argue that further progress will depend on linking biosensing performance more directly to the intrinsic structures and properties of individual materials. Emerging strategies to overcome persistent challenges, such as biocompatibility, selectivity, functionalization, drift, reproducibility and stability under physiological conditions will be central to translating laboratory demonstrations into reliable translational sensing technologies. The diversity of two-dimensional materials also creates opportunities to move beyond graphene and match specific material properties to unique sensing functions. Their integration into flexible and portable point-of-care devices would support applications ranging from continuous health monitoring to the Internet of Medical Things. Two-dimensional materials offer exclusive electronic and chemical properties for biosensing. This Perspective outlines their fundamental principles, functionalization strategies and applications, and discusses key challenges and opportunities for translating these platforms into real-world use. Two-dimensional materials couple biomolecular recognition directly to charge transport, enabling amplification-free highly sensitive biosensing applications. Graphene derivatives, transition-metal dichalcogenides, hexagonal boron nitride and elemental X-enes, offer distinct trade-offs in sensitivity, stability and functionalization routes. Structural and chemical variability (defects, terminations, contamination and thickness) often outweighs intrinsic material properties in real devices. The biofunctionalization strategy (covalent, non-covalent attachment, linker chemistry and receptor choice) controls stability, drift and usable lifetime of the 2D material biosensors. Standardized benchmarks and testing workflows are central to comparing biosensing performance across materials, devices and laboratories. Two-dimensional materials couple biomolecular recognition directly to charge transport, enabling amplification-free highly sensitive biosensing applications. Graphene derivatives, transition-metal dichalcogenides, hexagonal boron nitride and elemental X-enes, offer distinct trade-offs in sensitivity, stability and functionalization routes. Structural and chemical variability (defects, terminations, contamination and thickness) often outweighs intrinsic material properties in real devices. The biofunctionalization strategy (covalent, non-covalent attachment, linker chemistry and receptor choice) controls stability, drift and usable lifetime of the 2D material biosensors. Standardized benchmarks and testing workflows are central to comparing biosensing performance across materials, devices and laboratories.