Flexible NWs sensors in polymer, metal oxide and semiconductor materials for chemical and biological detection

•The development of nanowires sensors have been introduced.•The nanowires sensors with different materials have been reviewed.•The drawbacks and prospects of nanowires sensors have been concluded.

The biological and chemical sensors play an important role in human disease diagnosis, treatment and life safety and other industrial areas. Owing to the characteristic of high sensitivity to external environment, compactness and easy integration, nanowires (NWs) possess potential application in biochemical sensors and have achieved measurement for a variety of physical, chemical and biological variables with a high precision and resolution in recent years. Typically, the sensitivity and resolution of the NWs sensors depend on their geometric morphology; the selective detection technology for the characteristic variables depends on the specific function particle, substituent, and substrate. The single NWs perform more stably, yet hard to manipulate; the muti-NWs integrated sensor can be manufactured easier, however, its poor reproducibility needs further improvement. In this paper, the development and characteristics of NWs sensors will be reviewed for various materials, such as polymer, metal oxide and semiconductor.