A novel glucose colorimetric sensor based on intrinsic peroxidase-like activity of C60-carboxyfullerenes

C-60-carboxyfullerene, C-60[C(COOH)(2)](2), has been proven to function as peroxidase mimetics that can catalyze the reaction of peroxidase substrate 3,3',5,5'-tetramethylbenzidine (TMB) in the presence of H2O2 to produce a blue color reaction. Kinetic studies further indicate that C-60[C(COOH)(2)](2) has an even higher affinity to TMB than that of the natural enzyme, horseradish peroxidase (HRP). C-60[C(COOH)(2)](2)/glucose oxidase (GO(x))/TMB system provides a novel colorimetric sensor for glucose and shows good response toward glucose detection over a range of 1.0-40 mu M with a limit of detection 0.5 mu M (3 sigma/slope). Moreover, this sensitive and selective sensor can be successfully applied for the quantitative determination of glucose in human serum. The results indicate that it is a simple, cheap, convenient, highly selective, sensitive, and easy handling colorimetric assay. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.