Carbon Nanotube-Based Potentiometry

Looking at the analytical sciences from certain perspective, we could ask ourselves where chemical analysis is heading. How will chemical analysis look like in 20 years? Will the majority of analyses be made still in the laboratory by then? Will classical analytical techniques continue being the major source of chemical information? To give a proper answer to these questions, it is necessary to look closely at the present trends and envision some of the social, cultural, economical, and technical driving forces. Through the identification these drivers of change it is possible to visualize future scenarios, deciding which technologies will be required to satisfy future societal needs. This strategy reveals that there are some gaps in the process of generation of chemical information that will have to be filled with new chemical techniques, methods, and procedures in the near future. Nowadays we often experience the need to have more information about our physical world in real time. The environment is only an example. We would like to monitor more often the state of our rivers, lakes, or seas or to know the reasons behind serious contamination events. Recently, an editorial of Analytical Chemistry advocated for the development of new sensing devices that could meet the low-cost requirement for monitoring frequently and extensively environmental samples [2]. In a similar way, sensors that could provide continuous chemical data from industrial processes or the uninterrupted information about the composition of samples in agriculture (e.g., hydroponics) are simply two current examples. But the generation of large amounts of relevant data is not enough. This data must be gathered and processed correctly to extract useful information. It is well known that chemical analysis consists of generating reliable chemical information to make decisions. In the current already hyperconnected world, and considering the trend to further reduce the costs involved in the transmission, processing, and storage of the information, the conversion of huge amounts of chemical data into information and knowledge is a clear driving force. Telemedicine gives us already an image of this future. However, one of the key aspects of this image is to have a suitable sensing device at the patient's end of the telemedicine network. Even more, the concept of crowd sourcing will probably become usual, shifting the responsibilities of data collection from the specialized worker to the patient [