title: Ultrathin hydrogel films for rapid optical biosensing.
abstract: Novel biosensors have been designed by reporting an analyte-induced (de)swelling of a stimuli-responsive hydrogel (usually in a form of thin film) with a suitable optical transducer. These simple, inexpensive hydrogel biosensors are highly desirable, however, their practical applications have been hindered, largely because of their slow response. Here we show that quick response hydrogel sensors can be designed from ultrathin hydrogel films. By the adoption of layer-by-layer assembly, a simple but versatile approach, glucose-sensitive hydrogel films with thickness on submicrometer or micrometer scale, which is 2 orders of magnitude thinner than films used in ordinary hydrogel sensors, can be facilely fabricated. The hydrogel films can not only respond to the variation in glucose concentration, but also report the event via the shift of Fabry-Perot fringes using the thin film itself as Fabry-Perot cavity. The response is linear and reversible. More importantly, the response is quite fast, making it possible to be used for continuous glucose monitoring.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Medicinal Chemical Biology and Key Laboratory of Functional Polymer Materials, Institute of Polymer Chemistry, College of Chemistry, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, China.
authors.forename: Xi
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Ying
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Guan
authors.forename: Yongjun
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
mesh_terms: D015374:Biosensing Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D005947:Glucose / Q000032:analysis*; D020100:Hydrogels / Q000737:chemistry*; D008567:Membranes, Artificial; D055095:Optics and Photonics / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D020100:Hydrogels; D008567:Membranes, Artificial; D005947:Glucose