A Highly Porous and Flexible Carbon Nanotube Array Coated with Gold Nanoparticles: Application in Non-Enzymatic Ultrasensitive Detection and Monitoring of Blood/Saliva Glucose

Abstract

Flexible, reusable, and ultrasensitive glucose sensors are the need of the hour for advanced health monitoring, specifically for economical diabetes management in low-income countries. Here, we demonstrate an ultra-sensitive, and extremely lightweight non-enzymatic glucose sensor based on gold nanoparticles sputtered carbon nanotube aerogel film (Au-CNT), which is flexible, durable, reusable, and portable. The flexible Au-CNT aerogel non-enzymatic glucose sensor showed remarkable sensitivity of 779 μA mM−1 cm−2, a wide linear range of 0.1 mM to 6 mM and a limit of detection (LoD) of 1.47 μM. The sensitivity of our sensor is highest among literature-reported carbon nanomaterials-based flexible glucose sensors for selective detection of glucose in blood serum/saliva samples. The Au-CNT aerogel shows the potential application as practical non-invasive and invasive self-monitoring glucose sensor. Therefore, highly sensitive and paper-thin Au-CNT electrode is a promising candidate for future commercial robust flexible and wearable biosensor applications.