ABSTRACT
For application in chemical sensing, the most important groups of biomolecules that need to be considered are enzymes and antibodies, although DNA and RNA are rapidly emerging into the sphere of chemical sensing, and will be an area of great future activity in relation to healthcare, defence and other applications. Since the primary focus of this book is immunosensing, this chapter will concentrate mainly on the immobilisation of antibodies, although most of the techniques discussed are equally applicable to other proteins such as enzymes. The majority of the surface activation and coupling chemistry is also applicable to small molecules, such as those used as haptens in competition-based immunoassays. In this case however, there is often no need for aqueous coupling chemistry so the range of options is much broader.
