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.