The Self-Powered Thermoelectric System Driving an Electric Field for Raman-Spectrum Glucose Quantitative Analysis

Abstract

For a long time, blood glucose monitoring has been a challenging issue in the field of medicine. Although it is possible to visit a hospital for regular blood tests to track blood sugar concentration, the physiological reactions triggered by blood collection might lead to feeling weak, dizzy, or even vomiting. Therefore, especially for diabetic patients, they need to frequently monitor their blood sugar concentration in their daily lives to ensure their health. Currently, the primary methods for blood glucose testing still rely on invasive techniques, such as using fingertip glucose meters and other methods which require skin puncture to obtain blood samples. Although these methods provide a quick assessment of current blood glucose concentration, they come with the pain and discomfort of blood collection process and the potential risk of infection. As a result, in recent years, many researchers have been dedicated to developing non-invasive blood glucose monitoring methods. However, accurately measuring glucose concentration inside the human body remains a challenging task. One of the primary issues is the presence of strong noise and background noise. To avoid this challenge, we have developed an innovative detection platform that is combines surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) and external electric field sensing technology. With the electromagnetic effect, we add external electric field in our platform to excite more the surface plasmon resonance. By using this method, we can achieve signal amplification to detect lower concentrations of glucose. Now, we can detect down to 0.001mM of glucose. We also exhibit self-powered electric field system, using the flexible themoelctric device to combine our platform. By the property of self-powered, we success to create a self-powered electric field system. We focus on driving themoelectric through the temperature different between body temperature and environment. The approach is aimed at generating power from the human body, providing a self-powered thermoelectric system for Raman-spectrum glucose sensors. This innovative approach holds promise for advancing non-invasive blood glucose monitoring and benefiting a larger population of diabetes patients in the future.