Highly sensitive non-enzymatic electrochemical glucose biosensor using a photolithography fabricated micro/nano hybrid structured electrode

In this study, a novel non-enzymatic glucose biosensor based on a simple photolithographic process is proposed. To fabricate the sensor, photoresist AZ-1518 was spin-coated onto a reclaimed silicon wafer, and then, a mask with a hexagonal close-packed circle array was employed for exposure and development to generate a hexagonal close-packed column array of AZ-1518. The diameter of each circle was set as 3 mu m. Subsequently, a thermal melting process was employed to convert each photoresist column into a photoresist hemisphere. A gold thin film was then sputtered onto the hemisphere array of AZ-1518 to form the sensing electrode. Finally, gold nanoparticles were deposited onto the gold thin film using a self-assembly monolayer method to enhance the sensing area. Measurements showed a 10.2-fold enhancement of the sensing area in comparison with a plain gold electrode. Actual detection of glucose demonstrated that the proposed non-enzymatic glucose biosensor can operate in a linear range of 55.6 mu M-13.89 mM. It had a sensitivity of 749.2 mu AmM-1 cm(-2) and a detection limit of 9 mu M. The novel glucose biosensor proposed here has several advantages such as being enzyme free, simple to fabricate, low cost, and easy to preserve on a long-term basis. Thus, it can feasibly be used for future clinical applications. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.