Dipole moment as the underlying mechanism for enhancing the immobilization of glucose oxidase by ferrocene-chitosan for superior specificity non-invasive glucose sensing

Abstract

Non-invasive methods for sensing glucose levels are highly desirable due to the comfortableness, simplicity, and lack of infection risk. However, the insufficient accuracy and ease of interference limit their practical medical applications. Here, we develop a non-invasive salivary glucose biosensor based on a ferrocene-chitosan (Fc-Chit) modified carbon nanotube (CNT) electrode through a simple drop-casting method. Compared with previous studies that relied mainly on trial and error for evaluation, this is the first time that dipole moment was proposed to optimize the electron-mediated Fc-Chit, demonstrating sturdy immobilization of glucose oxidase (GO_x) on the electrode and improving the electron transfer process. Thus, the superior sensing sensitivity of the biosensor can achieve 119.97 μA mM⁻¹ cm⁻² in phosphate buffered saline (PBS) solution over a wide sensing range of 20–800 μM. Additionally, the biosensor exhibited high stability (retaining 95.0% after three weeks) and high specificity toward glucose in the presence of various interferents, attributed to the specific sites enabling GO_x to be sturdily immobilized on the electrode. The results not only provide a facile solution for accurate and regular screening of blood glucose levels via saliva tests but also pave the way for designing enzymatic biosensors with specific enzyme immobilization through fundamental quantum calculations.