ZnO Nanorod-Based Non-Enzymatic Optical Glucose Biosensor

The highly sensitive, interference-free and non-enzymatic optical sensing of glucose has been made possible for the first time using the hydrothermally synthesized ZnO nanorods. The UV irradiation of glucose- treated ZnO nanorods decomposes glucose into hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and gluconic acid by UV oxidation. The ZnO nanorods play the role of a catalyst similar to the oxidase used in the enzymatic glucose sensors. The photoluminescence (PL) intensity of the nearband edge emission of the ZnO nanorods linearly decreased with the increased concentration of H2O2. Therefore, the glucose concentration is monitored over the wide range of 0.5-30 m mu, corresponding to 9-540 mg/dL. The concentration range of the linear region in the calibration curve is suitable for its clinical use as a glucose sensor, because the glucose concentration of human serum is typically in the range of 80-120 mg/dL. In addition, the optical glucose sensor made of the ZnO nanorods is free from interference by bovin serum albumin, ascorbic acid or uric acid, which are also present in human blood. The non-enzymatic ZnO-nanorod sensor has been demonstrated with human serum samples from both normal persons and diabetic patients. There is a good agreement between the glucose concentrations measured by the PL quenching and standard clinical methods.