Non-Invasive, Non-Enzymatic Glucose Sensor Using Phenylboronic Acid with Reversible Glucose Interaction

Diabetes management mainly relies on invasive blood glucose monitoring techniques/methods, which can be painful and psychologically burdensome and are not suitable for tracking blood glucose levels in real-time. On the other hand, non-invasive glucose detection methods have been developed as harmless alternatives that also facilitate real-time monitoring. These methods rely on body fluids like sweat to obtain diagnostic metabolites. This study introduces a non-invasive, non-enzymatic glucose sensor (PBA-NN-g-sensor) that uses a phenylboronic acid (PBA)-polyvinyl chloride (PVC) matrix as the glucose-sensitive sensing medium, which can be reversibly interacted with glucose molecules. The proposed PBA-NN-g-sensor was operated on the principle of the frequency modulation technique to detect glucose concentration; according to the method, the frequency of the received sensing signal at the output of the detection system depends on the concentration of glucose, and the sensor exhibited a wide dynamic range (10 mu M-1 M), high sensitivity (5.91 pF/decade), and excellent linearity (0.991). The sensor is highly selective, unaffected by common biomolecules like lactate and uric acid, and responds rapidly with short recovery times (< 1 s). Tests showed that it had a relative standard deviation of 0.047%, which demonstrates its robustness and reliability. It is lightweight and cost-effective, making it ideal for wearable healthcare devices and a viable alternative to traditional invasive techniques.