Development of Direct Electron Transfer-Type Extended Gate Field Effect Transistor Enzymatic Sensors for Metabolite Detection

In this work, direct electron transfer (DET)-type extended gate field effect transistor (EGFET) enzymatic sensors were developed by employing DET-type or quasi-DET-type enzymes to detect glucose or lactate in both 100 mM potassium phosphate buffer and artificial sweat. The system employed either a DET-type glucose dehydrogenase or a quasi-DET-type lactate oxidase, the latter of which was a mutant enzyme with suppressed oxidase activity and modified with amine-reactive phenazine ethosulfate. These enzymes were immobilized on the extended gate electrodes. Changes in the measured transistor drain current (I_D) resulting from changes to the working electrode junction potential (φ) were observed as glucose and lactate concentrations were varied. Calibration curves were generated for both absolute measured I_D and ΔI_D (normalized to a blank solution containing no substrate) to account for variations in enzyme immobilization and conjugation to the mediator and variations in reference electrode potential. This work resulted in a limit of detection of 53.9 μM (based on I_D) for glucose and 2.12 mM (based on I_D) for lactate, respectively. The DET-type and Quasi-DET-type EGFET enzymatic sensor was then modeled using the case of the lactate sensor as an equivalent circuit to validate the principle of sensor operation being driven through OCP changes caused by the substrate-enzyme interaction. The model showed slight deviation from collected empirical data with 7.3% error for the slope and 8.6% error for the y-intercept.