We present an enzyme-like functional polymer that recognizes nonelectroactive targets and catalyzes their redox reactions for simple, selective steroid metabolite detection. Measuring steroid metabolites, such as cortisol, has been widely adopted to diagnose stress and chronic diseases. Conventional detection method based on competitive immunoassay requires time-consuming labeling processes for signal transduction and unstable biological receptors for biorecognition yet with limited selectivity. Inspired by natural enzymes' target specificity and catalytic nature, we report an enzyme-mimic using electrocatalytic molecularly imprinted polymers (EC-MIP) to achieve label-free, external redox reagent-free, sensitive, and selective electrochemical detection of cortisol. The EC-MIP sensor contains molecularly imprinted cavities for specific cortisol binding and embedded copper phthalocyanine tetrasulfonate (CuPcTS) for electrocatalytic reduction of the ketones on the captured cortisol into alcohols. The direct sensing approach resolves the intrinsic limitations of conventional MIP-based sensors, most notably the use of external redox probes and weak sensing signals. The sensor exhibited a detection limit of 181 pM with significantly enhanced selectivity using a differential sensing mechanism. The new enzyme-like sensor can be modified to detect other targets, offering a simple, robust approach to future health monitoring technologies.
Carbon dots (CDs) are eco-friendly luminescent materials with the potential to replace traditional phosphors and heavy metal-based quantum dots in color-conversion light-emitting devices (LEDs). The color-conversion LEDs require the luminescent...
Monitoring of glucose levels in non-invasive biofluids, such as saliva and sweat, can advance personal health tracking. However, the approach remains challenging due to the low glucose concentration in saliva and sweat, about 100 times lower than in the blood. Commercial glucose sensors rely on glucose oxidase to measure blood glucose levels with enzyme reactions. The enzyme activity varies with pH, oxygen level, and temperature (more than 40ºC). Also, the method often suffers from cross-reactivity with other sugar molecules, such as maltose and xylose [1]. Thus, it is crucial to develop highly sensitive and stable non-enzymatic sensors for detecting glucose in non-invasive biological fluids. In this work, we present an enzyme-free, reagent-free electrochemical glucose monitoring patch based on a glucose imprinted polymer nanocomposite. The nanocomposite comprises redox-active chitosan-ferrocene (Cs-Fc) wrapped multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs). The Cs-Fc is a polymer with covalently secured redox-active ferrocene, effectively preventing the out leakage of redox substances [2]. The incorporation of MWCNTs increases the surface area, conductivity, and electron transfer rate. The glucose imprinted layer was grown on the surface of the nanocomposite by electropolymerization of functional monomers o-phenylenediamine (o-PD) and 3-aminophenylboronic acid (APBA) in the presence of glucose templates. The successful removal of template molecules created glucose specific recognition sites in the polymer matrices. The sensor directly detected the presence of glucose upon their binding into these cavities. The electrochemical property of the modified sensor was characterized by cyclic voltammetry (CV) in a potential range of 0-0.5 V at a scan rate of 100 mVs-1 in 1x PBS (pH 7.4) solution. For glucose sensing, the sensor was immersed in a sample solution containing different glucose concentrations for 30 min. We have optimized the composition ratio and assay conditions for sensitive glucose detection. Preliminary results indicated a change in redox peak current of ~2.7 times relative to the control upon adding 1 mM glucose, as shown in Figure 1. The proposed glucose patch is label-free, reagentless, cost-effective, easy fabrication, and expected to be utilized for sensitive and selective glucose detection from sweat. References [1] Hwang, D.W., Lee, S., Seo, M. and Chung, T.D., 2018. Recent advances in electrochemical non-enzymatic glucose sensors–a review. Analytica chimica acta, 1033, pp.1-34. [2] Wu, B., Yeasmin, S., Liu, Y., and Cheng, L.J., 2022. Sensitive and selective electrochemical sensor for serotonin detection based on ferrocene-gold nanoparticles decorated multiwall carbon nanotubes. Sensors and Actuators B: Chemical, 354, p.131216. Figure 1
We present a photoinduced reconfigurable metasurface to enable high spatial resolution terahertz (THz) wave modulation. Conventional photoinduced THz wave modulation uses optically induced conductive patterns on a semiconductor substrate to create programmable passive THz devices. The technique, albeit versatile and straightforward, suffers from limited performance resulting from the severe lateral diffusion of the photogenerated carriers that undermines the spatial resolution and conductivity contrast of the photoinduced conductive patterns. The proposed metasurface overcomes the limitation using a metal-jointed silicon mesa array with subwavelength-scaled dimensions on an insulator substrate. The structure physically restrains the lateral diffusion of the photogenerated carriers while ensuring the electrical conductivity between the silicon mesas , which is essential for THz wave modulation. The metasurface creates high-definition photoconductive patterns with dimensions smaller than the diffusion length of photogenerated carriers. The metasurface provides a modulation depth of −20 to −10 dB for the THz waves between 0.2 to 1.2 THz and supports a THz bandpass filter with a tunable central frequency. The new, to the best of our knowledge, design concept will benefit the implementation of reconfigurable THz devices.
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