Simple and fast colorimetric and electrochemical methods for the ultrasensitive detection of glucose

Developing ultrasensitive and user-friendly methods for the detection glucose has attracted more and more attention. By virtue of high selectivity and sensitivity, enzyme-based glucose sensor plays a key role in point-of-care sensing technology for detecting glucose concentration. In this study, Amplex Red (AR), as both indicator and mediator, was investigated to detect glucose in presence of glucose oxidase (GOx) enzymes using colorimetric and electrochemical methods. Without using any advanced techniques and sophisticated nanomaterials, 1 mu M glucose can be easily detected through simply detecting the solution color with a visual colorimetric method. On the other hand, the electrochemical method can provide much higher sensitivity for the detection of glucose, which achieves a linear range spanning from 20 nM to 3.56 mu M with a limit of 7.3 nM (signal-to-noise ratio SNR = 3). It is also found that the presence of other sugars such as fructose, lactose, and maltose have very limited interference effects on the detection of glucose. More importantly, a bare GC electrode was used in all these electrochemical measurements without any electrode surface modification, guaranteeing a simple and fast operation. The analytical platforms for the detection of glucose presented here not only provide simple, fast, and ultrasensitive methods, but also have the potential to advance the sensing technology in the application of other health diagnostic research areas.

Automated summary

The study explores the use of Amplex Red (AR) and glucose oxidase to develop a method for detecting glucose, achieving fast detection of glucose concentration through colorimetric and electrochemical methods.