Glucose sensing by field-effect transistors based on interfacial hydrogelation of self-assembled peptide

Abstract

Interfacial hydrogelation of peptides gated on the semiconductor channel has yet to be explored in surface chemistry and field-effect transistor-based biosensors (bio-FETs). This work reports the first example of peptidic hydrogel gated bio-FET by surface assisted self-assembly for label-free and real-time monitoring of the glucose with low limit of detection, excellent sensitivity, and good stability in mouse serum. The boric acid-containing peptide forms a hydrogel layer on the surface of In2O3, which interacts with glucose reversibly and generates boronate anions to influence the semiconductor's conductivity. The results also indicate the superiority of hydrogel gated bio-FET for real-time monitoring of glucose in complex environments and serve as a wearable device. This work illustrates a simple and fundamental strategy for integrating peptidic hydrogel with bio-FET for the real-time detection of analytes.