Thin-films-based sensors: Physics contribution to medicine, environment and food

Both scientific and civil societies are constantly searching for new, reliable, accurate, adaptable, and less expensive sensing technologies. Thin-film-based sensors have been gaining attention due to characteristics such as high sensitivity, miniaturization, rapid response capabilities, analytical simplicity, and a wide range of applications. They have been exhibiting promising results in detecting relevant compounds in medical diagnostics and health condition monitoring, environmental control and toxic compounds identification, and food characterization and freshness evaluation. This perspective aims to address the potentialities of this technology by summarizing the main materials (graphene oxide, zinc oxide, and titanium dioxide) used and methodologies employed for the sensor fabrication, reviewing the state of the art concerning the most relevant applications and foreseeing the future of the thin-film sensors field.