An ultrasensitive and wearable photoelectrochemical sensor for unbiased and accurate monitoring of sweat glucose

• Published in: Sensors and actuators. B, Chemical Vol. 354; p. 131204
• Main Authors: Liu, Yanwen, Zhong, Lin, Zhang, Shubo, Wang, Juan, Liu, Zhihong
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Lausanne Elsevier B.V 01.03.2022; Elsevier Science Ltd
• Subjects: Biomarkers; Chemical sensors; Flexible photoelectrochemical sensor; Glucose; High-sensitivity; On-body monitoring; Polydimethylsiloxane; Selectivity; Sensors; Storage stability; Sweat; Sweat glucose; Unbiased; Wearable technology; Unbiased; Flexible photoelectrochemical sensor; Sweat glucose; High-sensitivity; On-body monitoring
• ISSN: 0925-4005; 1873-3077
• DOI: 10.1016/j.snb.2021.131204

Wearable electrochemical sensors have been extensively used for the non-invasive and quantitative on-body detection of biomarkers in sweat. However, the photoelectrochemical (PEC) sensor, which is an evolutionary generation of the electrochemical method and holds higher sensitivity and the ability to unbiased analysis, is rarely applied to construct flexible wearable sweat devices. Herein, we demonstrated a flexible PEC patch comprised of an ultrasensitive PEC sensor and a hydrophilic poly-(dimethylsiloxane) sweat collector for unbiased and high-performance sweat glucose detection. The proposed PEC sensor offered excellent durability against mechanical deformations, low detection limit (22.2 pM), desirable selectivity, and high storage stability. Moreover, the feasibility and accuracy of this wearable glucose sensor patch were validated through human subjects studies, and the obtained sweat glucose test results closely matched with the commercial kit and correlated well with the blood glucose level. Taken together, we could confirm the considerable promise of the unbiased wearable PEC sensor for patient-friendly diabetic diagnosis. •A filtration-transfer printing method was used to fabricate flexible electrodes.•A laser engraving method for producing PDMS sweat collectors was established.•The unbiased photoelectrochemical sensor achieved ultrasensitive glucose detection.•The sweat sensor showed excellent flexibility, good stability, and high accuracy.