MnO2 Nanoparticles and Carbon Nanofibers Nanocomposites with High Sensing Performance Toward Glucose

Recent advances in glucose monitoring utilizing oxidase electrochemical biosensors integrating carbon-based nanomaterials and smart enzyme design

Glucose oxidase (GOx), as a molecular recognition element of glucose biosensors, has high sensitivity and selectivity advantages. As a type of biosensor, the glucose oxidase electrode exhibits advantages such as ease of operation, high sensitivity, and strong specificity, promising broad application prospects in biomedical science, the food industry, and other fields. In recent years, with the advancement of nanotechnology, research efforts to enhance the performance of GOx biosensors have primarily focused on improving the conductive properties and specific surface area of nanomaterials, while neglecting the potential to modify the structure of the core component, GOx itself, to improve biosensor performance. Rapid modification of the GOx surface through chemical modification techniques yields a new modified enzyme (mGOx). Meanwhile, composite techniques involving carbon nanomaterials can be employed to further enhance sensor performance. This article reviews the construction methods and optimization strategies of glucose oxidase electrodes in recent years, along with research progress in their application in electrochemical sensing for glucose detection, and provides an outlook for future developments.

Building Block Engineering toward Realizing High-Performance Electrochromic Materials and Glucose Biosensing Platform

The molecular engineering of conjugated systems has proven to be an effective method for understanding structure-property relationships toward the advancement of optoelectronic properties and biosensing characteristics. Herein, a series of three thieno[3,4-c]pyrrole-4,6-dione (TPD)-based conjugated monomers, modified with electron-rich selenophene, 3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene (EDOT), or both building blocks (Se-TPD, EDOT-TPD, and EDOT-Se-TPD), were synthesized using Stille cross-coupling and electrochemically polymerized, and their electrochromic properties and applications in a glucose biosensing platform were explored. The influence of structural modification on electrochemical, electronic, optical, and biosensing properties was systematically investigated. The results showed that the cyclic voltammograms of EDOT-containing materials displayed a high charge capacity over a wide range of scan rates representing a quick charge propagation, making them appropriate materials for high-performance supercapacitor devices. UV-Vis studies revealed that EDOT-based materials presented wide-range absorptions, and thus low optical band gaps. These two EDOT-modified materials also exhibited superior optical contrasts and fast switching times, and further displayed multi-color properties in their neutral and fully oxidized states, enabling them to be promising materials for constructing advanced electrochromic devices. In the context of biosensing applications, a selenophene-containing polymer showed markedly lower performance, specifically in signal intensity and stability, which was attributed to the improper localization of biomolecules on the polymer surface. Overall, we demonstrated that relatively small changes in the structure had a significant impact on both optoelectronic and biosensing properties for TPD-based donor-acceptor polymers.