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Polydopamine-Based Colorimetric Superwettable Biosensor for Highly Sensitive Detection of Hydrogen Peroxide and Glucose

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Abstract

Superwettable surface has broad application prospects in fabricating biosensors due to its significant enrichment effect. Here, we report a polydopamine-based colorimetric superwettable sensor that integrates superhydrophobic–superhydrophilic micropatterns for the determination of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and glucose. Dopamine can be oxidized into polydopamine with the addition of horseradish peroxidase (HRP) and H2O2, leading to the deposited spots color change from colorless to black. The concentration of target can be determined by analyzing RGB value using a smartphone software. The superhydrophobic area on the superwettable surface helps capture droplets by confining them to superhydrophilic microwells. After droplet evaporation, the analytes are concentrated in the small superhydrophilic domain, thus greatly enhancing the sensitivity. The experimental results manifested that superwettable sensor is able to detect H2O2 with a broad linear range of 0.25 µmol/L–25 mmol/L and a low limit of detection (LOD) of 0.25 µmol/L by naked eye. For glucose detection, the linear range of the sensor is from 2 µmol/L to 20 mmol/L and LOD is 0.69 μmol/L. The superwettable sensor has been successfully applied in practical samples, including cancerous cells, milk, urine, and human serum samples with acceptable results. This superwettable sensor has several merits, such as high sensitivity, rapid response, and low sample volume in a single microdroplet, and shows great potential in manufacturing portable devices for complex biosensing applications.

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Acknowledgements

We gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (22176080) and SRT Program of University of Jinan (Yuhao Li).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Interfacial Reaction and Sensing Analysis in Universities of Shandong, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, University of Jinan, Jinan, 250022, China

    Jinze Li, Yuhao Li & Zhongfeng Gao

  2. College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Linyi University, Linyi, 276005, China

    Jinze Li

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  1. Jinze Li
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  2. Yuhao Li
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Correspondence to Zhongfeng Gao.

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Li, J., Li, Y. & Gao, Z. Polydopamine-Based Colorimetric Superwettable Biosensor for Highly Sensitive Detection of Hydrogen Peroxide and Glucose. J. Anal. Test. 7, 118–127 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41664-023-00252-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s41664-023-00252-4

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