Citation: Thobakgale, L.; Ombinda-
Lemboumba, S.; Mthunzi-Kufa, P.
Chemical Sensor Nanotechnology in
Pharmaceutical Drug Research.
Nanomaterials 2022, 12, 2688. https://
doi.org/10.3390/nano12152688
Academic Editors: Deepak Kukkar
and Ki-Hyun Kim
Received: 11 July 2022
Accepted: 29 July 2022
Published: 5 August 2022
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Review
Chemical Sensor Nanotechnology in Pharmaceutical Drug Research
Lebogang Thobakgale
1,2,
*
,†
, Saturnin Ombinda-Lemboumba
1
and Patience Mthunzi-Kufa
1,2
1
National Laser Centre, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, P.O. Box 395, Pretoria 0001, South Africa
2
College of Agriculture, Engineering and Science, School of Chemistry and Physics,
University of Kwa-Zulu Natal, University Road, Westville, Durban 3630, South Africa
* Correspondence: lthobakgale@csir.co.za; Tel.: +27-12-841-3845 or +27-730347403
† CSIR Bld 46a, 1 Meiring Naude Road, Brummeria, Pretoria 0001, South Africa.
Abstract:
The increase in demand for pharmaceutical treatments due to pandemic-related illnesses
has created a need for improved quality control in drug manufacturing. Understanding the physical,
biological, and chemical properties of APIs is an important area of health-related research. As
such, research into enhanced chemical sensing and analysis of pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) for
drug development, delivery and monitoring has become immensely popular in the nanotechnology
space. Nanomaterial-based chemical sensors have been used to detect and analyze APIs related to
the treatment of various illnesses pre and post administration. Furthermore, electrical and optical
techniques are often coupled with nano-chemical sensors to produce data for various applications
which relate to the efficiencies of the APIs. In this review, we focus on the latest nanotechnology
applied to probing the chemical and biochemical properties of pharmaceutical drugs, placing specific
interest on several types of nanomaterial-based chemical sensors, their characteristics, detection
methods, and applications. This study offers insight into the progress in drug development and
monitoring research for designing improved quality control methods for pharmaceutical and health-
related research.
Keywords: chemical sensors; nanomaterials; detection; pharmaceuticals; therapeutic drugs
1. Introduction
With the surge of pandemic symptoms on the rise, the need for more therapeutic
medication is also increasing. Secondly, it is worth noting that with the upcoming variants
of the COVID-19 virus, we should expect the demand for medication to increase further.
As such, pharmaceutical companies at both the research and industrial phases will experi-
ence pressure to produce more drugs in mass without compromising quality control. In
the former case, research into drug design is paramount to producing new medication
with better properties, less side effects, and better efficiencies. Once successful, industrial
production of new and existing medication will require extensive and thorough quality
screening performed in a timely and cost-effective manner. These concerns have inspired
the compilation of this review article to assess the current detection, monitoring, and analy-
sis methods used in the pharmaceutical industry. Nanomaterials, which are compounds
with size dimensions from 1–100 nanometers (nm), are playing a key role in drug research
as adsorption platforms [
1
–
3
]. These materials carry special properties such as electrical
conductivity, optical transmittance, easy surface modification, thermal conductivity, and
large surface areas which are all essential requirements of a good chemical and biochemical
sensor [
4
,
5
]. Furthermore, the chemical modification of nanoparticles allows the design of
tailored scaffolds for the recognition and adsorption of analytes. Chemical interactions
Nanomaterials 2022, 12, 2688. https://doi.org/10.3390/nano12152688 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/nanomaterials
