Focus Review on Nanomaterial-Based Electrochemical Sensing of Glucose for Health Applications

Abstract

Diabetes management can be considered the first paradigm of modern personalized medicine. An overview of the most relevant advancements in glucose sensing achieved in the last 5 years is presented. In particular, devices exploiting both consolidated and innovative electrochemical sensing strategies, based on nanomaterials, have been described, taking into account their performances, advantages and limitations, when applied for the glucose analysis in blood and serum samples, urine, as well as in less conventional biological fluids. The routine measurement is still largely based on the finger-pricking method, which is usually considered unpleasant. In alternative, glucose continuous monitoring relies on electrochemical sensing in the interstitial fluid, using implanted electrodes. Due to the invasive nature of such devices, further investigations have been carried out in order to develop less invasive sensors that can operate in sweat, tears or wound exudates. Thanks to their unique features, nanomaterials have been successfully applied for the development of both enzymatic and non-enzymatic glucose sensors, which are compliant with the specific needs of the most advanced applications, such as flexible and deformable systems capable of conforming to skin or eyes, in order to produce reliable medical devices operating at the point of care.

A Review of Electroactive Nanomaterials in the Detection of Nitrogen-Containing Organic Compounds and Future Applications

“…This property is more important in electrically transduced sensing devices. So, printed electrode-based electrically/electrochemically transduced devices have desirable features like affordability, sensitivity, specificity, limit of detection, and reliability (Figure 12) [85]. The first printed electronics were successfully commercialized in household appliances from 1948 to 1960 [86].…”

P-EcStat: A Versatile Design of Photoelectrochemical and Electrochemical Sensing System with Smartphone Interface via Bluetooth Low Energy

“…Research efforts in these fields are mainly directed towards diversifying sensor materials, utilizing different types and structural forms of nanomaterials with or without labels to enhance identification performance, sensitivity, and specificity in the analysis of interest [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11]. Consequently, EC and PEC sensors have become powerful tools in analytical chemistry, offering broad applicability in diverse fields such as food safety [5,[12][13][14][15][16][17][18], environmental monitoring [18][19][20][21][22][23], and health diagnostics [3,18,[24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34]. EC sensors function by using receptors immobilized on the surface of the electrode.…”