BIOSENSORS BASED ON THE PYROELECTRIC BEHAVIOUR OF BIOLOGICAL SYSTEMS

Abstract

Living organisms contain pyroelectric structures which function extremely well as pyroelectric detectors and transducers. Organisms are thus able to detect and discriminate between different stimuli in the environment, such as rapid changes of temperature, of illumination, of uniaxial and hydrostatic pressure. The different stimuli represent different forms of energy and are transduced into the nearly uniform type of electrical signals, whose voltage/time-course frequently depends on dX/dt (X, stimulus; t, time). The voltage/timecourses of the pyroelectric responses of biological systems (like nerve tissue) on the one hand, and of nonbiological pyroelectric crystals (like tourmaline) or nonbiological pyroelectric polymers (like polyvinylidene fluoride) on the other hand, to external stimuli are analogous.