"Ready-to-use" hollow nanofiber membrane-based glucose testing strips

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Biotechnology
• Analytical Chemistry

Background:

• Glucose detection is crucial for diabetes management.
• Existing glucose test strips often require separate reagents or have limited stability.
• Developing integrated and stable biosensors is an ongoing challenge.

Purpose of the Study:

• To fabricate a novel
• ready-to-use
• glucose test strip using a polyurethane hollow nanofiber membrane.
• To achieve in situ co-encapsulation of glucose oxidase and horseradish peroxidase with chromogenic agents.
• To evaluate the performance of the developed test strips as both colorimetric sensors and optical biosensors.

Main Methods:

• Facile co-axial electrospinning of polyurethane hollow nanofibers.
• Co-encapsulation of glucose oxidase and horseradish peroxidase within the nanofibers.
• Incorporation of chromogenic agents (ABTS or o-dianisidine) in the core or shell phase.
• Evaluation of colorimetric response in solution and optical response in dip-and-read mode.

Main Results:

• The test strip with o-dianisidine demonstrated a linear response range of 0.01–20 mM and 62.1% activity recovery in solution.
• The test strip with ABTS showed lower activity recovery (18.0%) and instability.
• As an optical biosensor, the o-dianisidine test strip showed excellent correlation (0.5–50 mM) and rapid color development.
• The test strips exhibited excellent long-term storage stability (half-life of 4 months at 25 °C).

Conclusions:

• The developed polyurethane hollow nanofiber membrane-based glucose test strip is a promising "all-in-one" biosensor.
• The o-dianisidine incorporated test strip offers superior performance and stability compared to the ABTS version.
• The "dip-and-read" optical biosensor format provides a convenient and accurate method for glucose monitoring.