Glucose-sensitive field effect transistor using totally synthetic compounds

Abstract

A field effect transistor (FET)-based glucose sensor was fabricated. As a totally synthetic and thus stable glucose-sensing moiety, 3-acrylamidophenylboronic acid was chemically introduced onto the FET gate surface in the form of a thin copolymer gel layer. Excellent transistor characteristics were confirmed even after the surface modification, ensuring validity of the modification procedure herein developed. Glucose-induced changes in the FET’s electric characteristics were obtained in quantitative as well as reversible manners. It was also demonstrated that the prepared FET is able to continuously perceive the change in the glucose concentration in the milieu. The detected signals were attributed to the faction change of the gate-introduced phenyborate anions, also presumably involving other parameter changes such as permittivity and conductivity. The use of the fabricated FET could further be extended to the construction of stable, readily minutualizable, and label-free carbohydrate molecule-sensing systems.