Graphene-Based Glucose Sensors: A Brief Review

Since the existence of graphene, a material only a single atomic layer thick, was demonstrated about a decade ago, it has caught the attention of researchers worldwide. This paper begins with a historical overview of graphene since its discovery, in 2004, and focuses on a citation-weighted review of graphene-based sensors developed for the detection of biological targets. Based on this statistical analysis, we categorize recent developments in graphene-based biosensors (GBBs) as optimized for detecting 1) proteins, 2) nucleic acids, 3) carbohydrates, or 4) compounds generated by metabolic processes. Existing detection methods employed by these sensors include electrical, electrochemical, and photonic approaches with respect to detecting labeled (or enzyme-assisted) and label-free (or enzyme-free) probe structures. Herein, we focus on graphene-based glucose sensors because glucose-monitoring technology is extremely important in the management of diabetes and many practical examples of these carbohydrate sensors have been developed using the aforementioned detection methods.