Polymerized Crystalline Colloidal Array Sensing of High Glucose Concentrations

We are developing photonic crystal glucose sensing materials to continuously monitor relatively high glucose concentrations, such as found in blood. We modified our synthetic fabrication methodologies in order to increase the glucose concentration range and to increase the reproducibility of our PCCA fabrication. We have also advanced our understanding of the sensing response by developing a mechanical method to independently determine the hydrogel cross-link density. Our investigation of the sensing mechanism indicates that glucose binding depends mainly on the boronic acid concentrations and affinities. We determined the binding constant of 2-fluoro-5-aminophenyl boronic acid for glucose under physiological conditions. We have examined the dependence of glucose sensing upon interferences by other species that ligand to boronic acids, such as lactate and human serum albumin. We examined the stability of our sensors over a period of weeks at room temperature and demonstrated that we could further stabilize our sensing materials by reversibly dehydrating them for storage.