A novel non-enzymatic electrochemical glucose sensor modified with FeOOH nanowire

The recent development in the nanotechnology has paved the way for large number of new materials and devices of desirable properties which have useful functions for electrochemical sensor and biosensor applications. In this paper, a novel enzymeless glucose sensor is developed on the discovery that the FeOOH nanowire in fact possesses an intrinsic enzyme mimetic electrocatalytic activity similar to that found in natural peroxidases. The electrode modified with FeOOH nanowires showed a wide linear range (15 μM–3 mM) and high sensitivity (12.13 μA mM^? 1) for glucose sensing. Other excellent performances such as highly reproducible response, long-term stability, sound mechanical and chemical stability are also observed, and the interferences of ascorbic acid and dopamine can almost be completely avoided. The good analytical performance, low cost and straightforward preparation method made this novel electrode material promising for the development of effective glucose sensors.     

Recent advances in NADH electrochemical sensing design

NADH electrochemical sensor development has been one of the most studied areas of bioelectroanalysis because of the ubiquity of NAD(P)H based enzymatic reactions in nature. The different solutions proposed are still far from the realisation of the “ideal” NADH sensor and the research area is still challenging. The principles and the recent approaches in NADH electrochemical sensing design are reported in this review. An overview of selected examples and novel sensor materials for the electrocatalysis of NADH is given with emphasis on the appropriate design to obtain improved performances. The literature data taken in consideration has been grouped depending on the strategy used in: surface modified electrodes for NADH sensing, surface redox mediated NADH probes, and bulk modified electrodes for the electrocatalytic oxidation of NADH. A list of already reported dehydrogenase-based biosensors is also given.     

Novel Bipolar Conjugated Polymer Containing Both Triphenylamine and Oxadizole Units

A novel bipolar conjugated polymer containing triphenylamine and 1,3,4-oxadiazole units was synthesized by Suzuki reaction.Its structure and properties were characterized by NMR,IR,UV-Vis,PL spectroscopy and electrochemical measurement. The photoluminescent spectroscopy and cyclic voltammograms measurement demonstrated that the resulting polymer shows blue emission (477 nm) and possesses both electron and hole-transporting property.     

Synthesis and characterization of 9,10-substituted anthracene derivatives as blue light-emitting and hole-transporting materials for electroluminescent devices

New 9,10-substituted anthracene derivatives were designed and synthesized for application as blue-emitting and hole-transporting materials in electroluminescent devices. They were characterized by H NMR, C NMR, FTIR, UV–vis, PL spectroscopy, and mass spectrometry. The theoretical calculation of three-dimensional structure and the energy densities of HOMO and LUMO states, as well as optical properties of these new obtained materials, supported the claim that they had non-coplanar structures. Their optical, thermal, and electrochemical properties could be tuned by varying the peripheral substituents. All of them were electrochemically and thermally stable molecules. Materials having electron donating triphenylamine as peripheral substituents showed promising potential as both blue light-emitting materials and hole-transporting materials for electroluminescent devices. Efficient blue and Alq3-based green OLEDs with maximum luminance efficiencies and CIE coordinates of 1.65 cd/A and (0.15, 0.16) and 6.25 cd/A and (0.26, 0.49) were achieved, respectively.     

Layer-by-layer sensor architecture of polymers and nanoparticles for electrochemical detection of uric acid in human urine samples

Excessive uric acid levels in the human body (hyperuricemia) are the main causes of kidney stones and diabetes. In this study, a layer-by-layer arrangement of polymers and nanocomposites is used as a new electrode sensing material for rapid and direct electrochemical determination of uric acid (UA). The electrode surface architecture was constructed by the incorporation of poly (amidoamine) dendrimer with 0.5 generation (poly (amidoamine) [PAMAM] [D-G0.5]) of multiwalled carbon nanotube-silver nanoparticles (MWCNT-AgNP) and a poly (neutral-red) (poly [NR]) polymer. The PAMAM (D-G0.5)/MWCNT-AgNP/poly (NR)-coated electrode has a good electrocatalytic activity for the determination of UA using cyclic voltammetry and showed remarkable enhancement in current response at a low-oxidation potential (0.3 V). Under optimal conditions, the developed electrochemical sensor showed an excellent and wide linear range for the determination of UA (i.e. 0.016 μM–2500 μM), and the limit of detection was found to be 0.005 μM. The modified sensor system demonstrated excellent sensitivity and selectivity toward the detection of UA in the presence of interfering substances, which are commonly found in urine and human fluid samples. Furthermore, the developed sensor has represented both reproducibility and excellent stability for the UA determination in real samples (human urine).     

PVDF-HFP composite polymer electrolyte with excellent electrochemical properties for Li-ion batteries

Poly (vinylidene fluoride-co-hexafluoropropylene)-based composite polymer electrolyte (CPE) was prepared by phase inversion technique. In this work, we first applied a novel surface-modified sub-micro-sized alumina, PC-401, as ceramic filler. Various electrochemical methods were applied to investigate the electrochemical properties of the polymer electrolytes. We found that the CPE with 10 wt.% PC-401 has excellent electrochemical properties, including the ionic conductivity as high as 0.89 mS cm⁻¹ and the Li-ion transference number of 0.46. Polymer Li-ion batteries using LiFePO₄ as cathode active material exhibited excellent cycling and high-temperature performances. PC-401 shows a promising applicability in the preparation of polymer electrolyte with high electrochemical properties.     

Fabrication of a non-enzymatic glucose sensor field-effect transistor based on vertically-oriented ZnO nanorods modified with Fe2O3

Herein, we report a non-enzymatic glucose sensor field-effect transistor (FET) based on vertically-oriented zinc oxide nanorods modified with iron oxide (Fe₂O₃-ZNRs). Compared with ZnO-based non-enzymatic glucose sensors, which show poor sensing performances, modification of ZnO with Fe₂O₃ dramatically enhances the sensing behavior of the fabricated non-enzymatic FET glucose sensor due to the excellent electrocatalytic nature of Fe₂O₃. The fabricated non-enzymatic FET sensor showed excellent catalytic activity for glucose detection under optimized conditions with a linear range up to 18 mM, detection limits down to ~ 12 μM, excellent selectivity, good reproducibility and long-term stability. Moreover, the fabricated FET sensor detected glucose in freshly drawn mouse whole blood and serum samples. The developed FET sensor has practical applications in real samples and the solution-based synthesis process is cost effective.     

Copper‐based Metal‐organic Framework for Non‐enzymatic Electrochemical Detection of Glucose

A non‐enzymatic electrochemical glucose sensor based on a Cu‐based metal‐organic framework (Cu‐MOF) modified electrode was developed. The Cu‐MOF was prepared by a simple ionothermal synthesis, and the characterizations of the Cu‐MOF were studied by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT‐IR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), single‐crystal X‐ray powder diffraction (SCXRD), and X‐ray powder diffraction (XRD). Electrochemical behaviors of the Cu‐MOF modified electrode to glucose were measured by differential pulse voltammetry (DPV). The electrochemical results showed that the Cu‐MOF modified electrode exhibited an excellent electro‐catalytic oxidation towards glucose in the range of 0.06 μM to 5 mM with a sensitivity of 89 μA/mM cm² and a detection limit of 10.5 nM. Moreover, the fabricated sensor showed a high selectivity to the oxidation of glucose in coexistence with other interferences. The sensor was satisfactorily applied to the determination of glucose in urine samples. With the significant electrochemical performances, MOFs may provide a suitable platform in the construction of kinds of electrochemical sensors and/or biosensors and hold a great promise for sensing applications.     

Peripheral aryl-substituted pyrrole fluorophores for glassy blue-light-emitting diodes

In this work, a series of aryl-substituted pyrrole analogues were synthesized. These pyrrole analogues emit violet to blue light. Fluorescence and amorphous glassy properties of these pyrrole analogues were induced by manipulating the peripheral aryl groups. These crowded peripheral aryl groups would effectively prevent the fluorophores from aggregation, resulting in higher quantum efficiency and a stable emission spectrum in the solid state. One of the aryl-substituted pyrrole analogues, namely NPANPy can be used as hole-transporting material or hole-transporting/emitting material. The devices would emit blue light when the fluorophore NPANPy acts as the hole-transporting/emitting material. Their CIE coordinate is around (0.16, 0.14), whereas the maximum brightness can reach 4300-5000 cd m⁻². Apart from that, when the fluorophore was used only as the hole-transporting material, better device performances, especially in low current density, were found, as compared with the standard device.     

NiMoO4 nanofibres designed by electrospining technique for glucose electrocatalytic oxidation

Electrochemical oxidation of glucose is the guarantee to realize nonenzymatic sensing of glucose, but greatly hindered by the slow kinetics of its oxidation process. Herein, various nanomaterials were designed as catalysts to accelerate glucose oxidation reaction. However, how to effectively build an excellent platform for promoting the glucose oxidation is still a great challenge. In our work, 1D CaMoO₄ and NiMoO₄ nanofibres with same morphologies and sub-microstructures were fabricated by electrospinning technique in the first time, and explored to modify the detection electrodes of nonenzymatic glucose sensors. The electrochemical results indicated that the NiMoO₄ based sensor exhibited a good catalytic activity toward glucose including the low response potential (0.5 V), high sensitivity(193.8 μA mM⁻¹ cm⁻²) with a linear response region of 0.01–8 mM, low detection limit (4.6 μM) and fast response time (2 s), all of which are superior to the corresponding values of CaMoO₄ nanofibres and even higher than those of most reported NiO and Co₃O₄ catalysts, which is due to the NiMoO₄ nanofibres are not only advantageous to electron transfer, but can mediated the electrocatalytic reaction of glucose. This work should provide a new pathway for the design of advanced glucose catalysts for nonenzymatic sensor.     

Facile and controllable one-step fabrication of molecularly imprinted polymer membrane by magnetic field directed self-assembly for electrochemical sensing of glutathione

Based on magnetic field directed self-assembly (MDSA) of the ternary Fe₃O₄@PANI/rGO nanocomposites, a facile and controllable molecularly imprinted electrochemical sensor (MIES) was fabricated through a one-step approach for detection of glutathione (GSH). The ternary Fe₃O₄@PANI/rGO nanocomposites were obtained by chemical oxidative polymerization and intercalation of Fe₃O₄@PANI into the graphene oxide layers via π–π stacking interaction, followed by reduction of graphene oxide in the presence of hydrazine hydrate. In molecular imprinting process, the pre-polymers, including GSH as template molecule, Fe₃O₄@PANI/rGO nanocomposites as functional monomers and pyrrole as both cross-linker and co-monomer, was assembled through N–H hydrogen bonds and the electrostatic interaction, and then was rapidly oriented onto the surface of MGCE under the magnetic field induction. Subsequently, the electrochemical GSH sensor was formed by electropolymerization. In this work, the ternary Fe₃O₄@PANI/rGO nanocomposites could not only provide available functionalized sites in the matrix to form hydrogen bond and electrostatic interaction with GSH, but also afford a promoting network for electron transfer. Moreover, the biomimetic sensing membrane could be controlled more conveniently and effectively by adjusting the magnetic field strength. The as-prepared controllable sensor showed good stability and reproducibility for the determination of GSH with the detection limit reaching 3 nmol L⁻¹ (S/N = 3). In addition, the highly sensitive and selective biomimetic sensor has been successfully used for the clinical determination of GSH in biological samples.     

Vapor deposition of ultrathin hydrophilic polymer coatings enabling candle soot composite for highly sensitive humidity sensors

Candle soot (CS) is a desirable carbon nanomaterial for sensors owing to its highly porous nanostructure and large specific surface area. CS is advantageous in its low-cost and facile preparation compared to graphene and carbon nanotubes, but its pristine nanostructure is susceptible to collapse, hampering its application in electronic devices. This article reports conformal coating of nanoscale crosslinked hydrophilic polymer on CS film using initiated chemical vapor deposition, which well preserved the CS nanostructure and obtained nanoporous CS@polymer composites. Tuning coating thickness enabled composites with different morphologies and specific surface areas. Surprisingly, the humidity sensor made from composite with the lowest filling degree, thus largest specific surface area, showed relatively low sensitivity, which is likely due to its discontinuous structure, thus insufficient conductive channels. Composite sensor with optimum filling degree shows excellent sensing response of more than 10³ with the linearity of R² = 0.9400 within a broad relative humidity range from 11% to 96%. The composite sensor also exhibits outstanding sensing performance compared to literature with low hysteresis (3.00%), a satisfactory response time (28.69 s), and a fast recovery time (0.19 s). The composite sensor is fairly stable and durable even after 24 h soaking in water. Furthermore, embedding a humidity sensor into a face mask realizes real-time monitoring of human breath and cough, suggesting promising applications in respiratory monitoring.     

Anion receptor-coated separator for lithium-ion polymer battery

Anion receptor-coated separators were prepared by coating poly(ethylene glycol) borate ester (PEGB) as an anion receptor and poly(vinyl acetate) (PVAc) as a good adhesive material towards electrodes onto microporous polyethylene (PE) separators. Gel polymer electrolytes were fabricated by soaking them in an liquid electrolyte, 1 M LiPF₆ in EC/DEC/PC (30/65/5, wt.%). As the weight ratio of PEGB to PVAc in a coating layer increased, gel polymer electrolytes showed higher cationic conductivity and electrochemical stability. The cationic conductivity and electrochemical stability of the gel polymer electrolyte based on coated separator with PVAc/PEGB (2/5, weight ratio) could reach 2.8 × 10^–4 S cm^–1 and 4.8 V, respectively. Lithium-ion polymer cells (LiCoO₂/graphite) based on gel polymer electrolytes with and without PEGB were assembled, and their electrochemical performances were evaluated.     

一种含三苯胺链段的PPV类交替共聚物的合成、表征及性能

合成了三苯胺二醛和1-甲氧基-4-辛氧基-2,5-二甲苯双(三苯基氯化)两种单体,通过Wittig反应制得了共轭聚合物,对共轭聚合物进行了表征和性能测试.这类共轭聚合物的氯仿溶液和膜在紫外光激发下能发出强的蓝绿光,与小分子三苯胺衍生物(TPD)相比,具有相对较高的热稳定性和良好的成膜性.电化学分析表明聚合物具有很好的空穴传输能力.同时对共轭聚合物的光致发光和电致发光性能进行了研究,结果表明,此聚合物与同类聚对亚苯基亚乙烯基(PPV)型聚合物相比具有较低的驱动电压和较高的发光亮度,是一种潜在的有机高分子电致发光材料.     

A novel hyperbranched copolymer constituted of triphenylamine and divinyl bipyridyl units

A hyperbranched copolymer (HTP) containing triphenylamine and divinyl bipyridyl units has been synthesized via Heck coupling reaction from 5,5′-divinyl-2,2′-bipyridyl and tris(4-bromophenyl)amine. The polymer had a number-average molecular weight of 1895 and a weight-average molecular weight of 2315, and was readily soluble in common organic solvents, such as THF, DMF and chloroform. The chemical structure of HTP was confirmed by FT-IR, ¹H NMR. Its thermal, electrochemical and optical properties have been investigated. The thermal analysis revealed that the polymer had a good thermal stability with the onset decomposition temperature at ca. 267 °C. The Uv-vis absorption and photoluminescence (PL) spectra exhibited that the Stokes shift between the absorption and emission of HTP was relatively large: 103 for HTP solution and 135 nm for HTP film. The electrochemical analysis showed that the electrochemical band gap of HTP was 0.92 eV. The fluorescence of the polymer in solution can be quenched by various transition metal ions and HTP showed different sensitivity in transition metal ions sensing.     

Review on applications of carbon nanomaterials for simultaneous electrochemical sensing of environmental contaminant dihydroxybenzene isomers

Carbonaceous nanostructures stand out as an excellent electrode material to enhance the electrocatalytic, electroconductivity, and long-term stability of the electrochemical sensor in recent years. This review article focus on the important advancement in developing carbonaceous nanomaterials-based electrochemical sensors for simultaneous electrochemical sensing (binary and ternary mixtures) of environmental contaminants dihydroxybenzene isomers. The fabrication of electrochemical sensors such as graphene/carbon nanotubes hybrid composite, graphene/ carbon nanotubes supported nanomaterials, mesoporous carbon, carbon nanofiber, carbon nano-fragment and biochar modified electrode was presented coupled with suitable applications. This review discussed the selective reports on the application of dihydroxybenzene sensors during the period from 2015 to 2020.     

Electropolymerization of carboxymethyl-β-cyclodextrin based on co-electrodeposition gold nanoparticles electrode: electrocatalysis and nonenzymatic glucose sensing

A facile strategy is developed to fabricate an Au-CMCD/PCMCD electrode with high efficiency, universal, and selectivity electrocatalysis through electro-depositing carboxymethyl-β-cyclodextrins with gold nanoparticles (Au-CMCD) followed by employing electro-polymerization carboxymethyl-β-cyclodextrin (PCMCD). The chemical structure, microstructure, electrochemical activity, and electrocatalytic properties of Au-CMCD/PCMCD electrode are investigated. Due to the synergistic effect of the PCMCD and Au-CMCD layers, the as-prepared electrode exhibits an outstanding enhancement of universal electrocatalytic activity to eight kinds of crucial biomolecules and drugs, such as chloramphenicol, thymine, and glucose. Then, as a target analyte, glucose is used to investigate the sensing performances of Au-CMCD/PCMCD electrode. The amperometric detection of glucose shows a wide linear range expanding to 0.001～110 mM with a low detection limit of 0.99 μM. More importantly, the absorption effect of PCMCD is stronger to glucose than other interfering species, which is favorable to avoid the influence of possible interfering substances. Furthermore, the glucose sensors reveal good stability and repeatability.     

Fiber-optic fluorescence sensor for dissolved oxygen detection based on fluorinated xerogel immobilized with ruthenium (II) complex

A fiber-optic sensor based on fluorescence quenching was designed for dissolved oxygen (DO) detection. The fluorinated xerogel-based sensing film of the present sensor was prepared from 3, 3, 3-trifluoropropyltrimethoxysilane (TFP–TriMOS). Oxygen-sensitive fluorophores of tris (2, 2′- bipyridine) ruthenium (II) (Ru(bpy)₃²⁺) were immobilized in the sensing film and the emission fluorescence was quenched by dissolved oxygen. In the sensor fabrication, a two-fiber probe was employed to obtain the best fluorescence collection efficiency and the sensing film was attached to the probe end. Scanning electron microscope (SEM), UV–Vis absorption spectroscopy (UV–Vis) and fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) measurements have been used to characterize the sensing film. The sensor sensitivity is quantified by I _deoxy/I _oxy, where I _deoxy and I _oxy represented the detected fluorescence intensities in fully deoxygenated and fully oxygenated environments, respectively. Compared with tetramethoxysilane (TMOS) and methyltriethoxysilane (MTMS)-derived sensing films, TFP–TriMOS-based sensor exhibited excellent performances in dissolved oxygen detection with short response time of 4 s, low limit of detection (LOD) of 0.04 ppm (R.S.D. = 2.5%), linear Stern–Volmer calibration plot from 0 to 40 ppm and long-term stability during the past 10 months. The reasons for the preferable performances of TFP–TriMOS-based sensing film were discussed.     

Research Progress on Nitrite Electrochemical Sensor

Nitrite has been widely used in industrial and agricultural production and is commonly found in food, drinking water, biology and environment. However, nitrite is a toxic inorganic pollutant that is very harmful to the health of human and other organisms. A variety of strategies have been proposed for nitrite detection in recent years. Among which, electrochemical approaches have gained more and more attention owing to the characteristics of simplicity, speediness, high sensitivity, and low cost, etc. The principle of nitrite electrochemical sensor is recommended in this review. The research progresses of nanocomposite material sensor for electrochemical nitrite detection based on carbon material, metal material, metal organic framework, conducting polymer and enzyme in recent years are also introduced from the perspective of composite electrode modification layer. The construction approaches and sensing performances of modified electrode are put special emphasis. At last, future trends of nitrite electrochemical sensor are discussed.     

A fully integrated graphene-polymer field-effect transistor biosensing device for on-site detection of glucose in human urine

Convenient and rapid self-measurement of the glucose level in the body is of great significance for diabetics to know their health conditions in time. In view of this, a polymer functionalized graphene field-effect transistor (P-GFET) portable biosensing device is demonstrated for glucose monitoring. The polymer is synthesized by acrylamide/3-acrylamidophenylboronic acid (AAPBA)/N, N-dimethylaminopropyl acrylamide. In the presence of glucose, the P-GFET shows Dirac point shifts and current changes as a result of the covalent bond between glucose and AAPBA in the synthesized polymer on graphene. The sensitivity of this P-GFET sensor can increase while the density of AAPBA in polymer increases. The used sensor could regain the detection capability after hydrochloric acid treatment due to the reversible reaction between polymer and glucose. In addition, the chemisorption interaction between polymer and glucose, which is stronger than physisorption interaction with other objects in urine, has been supported by the density functional theory study. The P-GFET shows high sensitivity of 822 μA1cm^?21mM^?1 with a limit of detection of 1.9 μM during human urine glucose monitoring. The sensor holds a detection range of 0.04–10 mM and good reusability over 20 times. With the customized portable real-time measurement capability in urine, our P-GFET sensor can offer advantages over current glucose detection methods.