title: Glucose sensor using liquid-crystal droplets made by microfluidics.
abstract: Micrometer-sized, 4-cyno-4-pentylbiphenyl (5CB) droplets were developed for glucose detection in an aqueous medium by coating with poly(acrylicacid-b-4-cynobiphenyl-4-oxyundecylacrylate) (PAA-b-LCP) at the 5CB/water interface and covalently immobilizing glucose oxidase (GOx) to the PAA chains. This functionalized liquid-crystal (LC) droplet detected glucose from a radial to bipolar configurational change by polarized optical microscopy under crossed polarizers at concentrations as low as 0.03 mM and response times of ~3 min and showed the selective detection of glucose against galactose. This new and sensitive LC-droplet-based glucose biosensor has the merits of low production cost and easy detection by the naked eye and might be useful for prescreening the glucose level in the human body.
authors.affiliation: Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, Kyunpook National University , #1370 Sangyuk-dong, Buk-gu, Daegu 702-701, Korea.
authors.forename: Jiyeon
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Mashooq
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Khan
authors.forename: Soo-Young
authors.initials: SY
authors.lastname: Park
mesh_terms: D015374:Biosensing Techniques / Q000379:methods*; D005947:Glucose / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D006801:Humans; D050866:Liquid Crystals / Q000737:chemistry; D044085:Microfluidics
chemical_list: D005947:Glucose