High-performance, flexible enzymatic glucose biosensor based on ZnO nanowires supported on a gold-coated polyester substrate.

The present work demonstrates the fabrication and performance of an enzymatic glucose biosensor based on ZnO nanowires (NWs) deposited on a Au-coated polyester (PET) substrate. Electrodeposition of ZnO NWs on the conducting PET substrate was carried out at 70 degrees C in an aqueous electrolyte consisting of zinc nitrate mixed with potassium chloride. Glucose oxidase (GOx) was subsequently immobilized on the as-synthesized ZnO NWs, and the electrocatalytic properties of GOx-immobilized ZnO NWs were evaluated by amperometry. The resulting GOx/ZnO-NWs/Au/PET bioelectrode exhibits excellent electrocatalytic performance with a high sensitivity of 19.5 muA mM(-1) cm(-2), a low Michaelis-Menten constant of 1.57 mM, and a fast response time of <5 s for the amperometric detection of glucose. The present study illustrates the feasibility of realizing light-weight, flexible, high-performance sensing devices using ZnO NWs.