Investigation of a photoelectrochemical passivated ZnO-based glucose biosensor

A vapor cooling condensation system was used to deposit high quality intrinsic ZnO thin films and intrinsic ZnO nanorods as the sensing membrane of extended-gate field-effect-transistor (EGFET) glucose biosensors. The sensing sensitivity of the resulting glucose biosensors operated in the linear range was 13.4 μA mM(-1) cm(-2). To improve the sensing sensitivity of the ZnO-based glucose biosensors, the photoelectrochemical method was utilized to passivate the sidewall surfaces of the ZnO nanorods. The sensing sensitivity of the ZnO-based glucose biosensors with passivated ZnO nanorods was significantly improved to 20.33 μA mM(-1) cm(-2) under the same measurement conditions. The experimental results verified that the sensing sensitivity improvement was the result of the mitigation of the Fermi level pinning effect caused by the dangling bonds and the surface states induced on the sidewall surface of the ZnO nanorods.