4. Example of a sensor application

4.1 Principle of electroanalysis by preconcentration

To illustrate the interest of these organized, oriented and functionalized mesoporous films, an application in the field of electrochemical sensors is described below. This is electroanalysis by preconcentration. When an analytical technique is no longer able to directly detect a target analyte below a threshold concentration (called the detection limit), one way of lowering this threshold, and enabling trace or ultra-trace analysis, is to accumulate this analyte on the sensor surface before detection. In the field of electrochemistry, this is often achieved by means of chemically modified electrodes whose modifying agent is judiciously chosen for its particular affinity to the target analyte.

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