If you live with diabetes, you can't live without them - the test strips for measuring blood glucose levels. They contain enzymes that react with the glucose in the blood. Once used, the conventional photometric or electrochemical measurement using enzymes no longer works and the test strip is discarded. The reason: enzymes are proteins that trigger biochemical reactions. As proteins, however, they are not temperature-stable.

A team from the Institute of Electronic and Sensor Materials has developed a new type of sensor material from a bio-based material that could enable enzyme-free measurement of the glucose concentration in the blood: a bath sponge coated with the mineral atacamite. The unique structure of the microporous 3D sponge framework efficiently promotes the activity of atacamite as an electrocatalyst. Therefore, glucose molecules can quickly and easily diffuse into the porous 3D network, facilitating electron transfer between glucose and atacamite and leading to the high-performance properties of the glucose sensor.

The researchers tested the novel measurement method in two steps; with a glucose-containing solution and with three different blood samples from anonymous donors from a medical practice in Freiberg. Both tests proved to be stable in the long term. This means that they produced the same measurement result over a period of one month. The material could therefore be reused as a sensor.

The novel sensor material would have to undergo further tests and clinical-pharmacological studies before it could be used in test strips for diabetes management. The team is currently also applying the findings from the development of the novel sensor material to other applications
in biosensor technology, such as the detection of dopamine or gallic acid.