A highly selective mediator less glucose detector employing vertically aligned carbon nanofiber (VACNF)

This work reports a vertically aligned carbon nanofiber (VACNF) based glucose detector which shows excellent selectivity without employing any mediator or artificial membrane. Forests of VACNF are fabricated on silicon (Si) substrate using plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) process and a metal layer is fabricated over silicon to serve as the electrode. VACNFs demonstrate superior conductive and structural properties compared to other carbon nano-materials and serve as an excellent location for charge transfer in electrochemical reaction process. Measurement results show that this glucose sensor can detect very low level of glucose with a high degree of linearity with respect to glucose concentration. Glucose detection is often interfered by several electro-active compounds and mediators/membranes are used to improve the performance of the detectors. Test results demonstrate that the proposed glucose sensor works well in presence of the interferer materials.