Abstract
Core-shell particles are novel nanomaterials which can be fabricated using two or more different materials to form core and shell layers. Compared to the single nanoparticles, nanocomposite coreshell particles have many advantages such as wide applicability, good tunability and high sensitivity when compared to the single nanoparticles. Nanocomposite core-shell particles have been extensively utilized in the areas of nanosensing, immunoassay, molecular imaging and therapy. By changing core and shell materials, several physical and chemical properties including magnetic, electronic, catalytic and optical properties can be easily controlled. CdSe/ZnS quantum dots and SiO2/Au metal nanoshell are the most often used nanocomposite core-shell particles for biomedical applications to the fields of nanosensing, immunoassay, drug delivery and molecular imaging. In this text, the fabrication and application of core-shell nanoparticles are introduced. In addition, the future development of core-shell particles as nanosensors will be presented and discussed.