A non-enzymatic photoelectrochemical glucose sensor based on BiVO4 electrode under visible light

A non-enzymatic photoelectrochemical (PEC) glucose sensor based on nanoporous bismuth vanadate (BiVO4) electrode is fabricated on fluorine doped tin oxide by electrochemical deposition. The photogenerated holes of BiVO4 show a strong oxidizing ability, with adsorption of glucose on the surface of BiVO4, agreeing well with the classical Langmuir adsorption model. Under visible light irradiation, the glucose molecules adsorbed on the BiVO4 electrode surface can be oxidized by the photogenerated holes, which results in increased photocurrent. The fabricated BiVO4 non-enzymatic photoelectrochemical sensor shows outstanding catalytic activity, favourable selectivity, good reproducibility, and long-term stability for glucose detection under optimized conditions. The linear range was 0–5 mM (correlation coefficient, R = 0.997) with a detection limit of 0.13 μmol L−1 (signal-to-noise = 3). In addition, the proposed PEC sensor was successfully applied to detect glucose in human serum samples. Our work provides a new strategy for the non-enzymatic detection of glucose.