Sensitive electrochemical detection of glucose via a hybrid self-powered biosensing system

The importance of glucose in many biological processes continues to garner increasing research interest in the design and development of efficient biotechnology for the sensitive and selective monitoring of glucose. Here we report on a novel hybrid self-powered biosensing system with a unique capability to convert the biochemical energy of glucose into electrical power, which is subsequently stored in a 10 pF capacitor serving as the transducing element. The anode and biocathode of the hybrid cell were constructed from a gold-supported nanoporous colloidal platinum structure (Au-co-Pt) and bilirubin oxidase (BOD) modified gold coated Buckypaper (BP-Au-BOD), respectively. The hybrid cell delivered an open circuit voltage and short circuit current of 0.73 V and 0.50 mA, which was ample to drive an energy amplification circuit and generate sufficient power to power an LED via the 10 pF capacitor. The self-powered glucose biosensing system exhibited excellent electrocatalytic activity towards glucose oxidation with a linear dynamic range up to 18 mM glucose. The biosensor demonstrated excellent selectivity towards glucose in the presence of interfering species. This presented hybrid self-powered biosensing system holds great promise to develop a self-contained continuous monitoring systems for a variety of biomedicine applications.