Light-Assisted Batch Injection Analysis of Glucose Exploiting a p-n-Homojunction Based on Cu2O

This work describes the development of a photoelectrochemical sensor for glucose quantification exploiting a light assisted-batch injection analysis (BIA) cell. A light-emitting diode (LED) lamp was employed to control the incidence of light on the p-Cu2O/n-Cu2O/fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) photoactive platform in BIA cell. The p-Cu2O/n-Cu2O/FTO platform was constructed by electrodepositing n-Cu2O and p-Cu2O and the characteristics of electrodeposited Cu2O films were investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman spectroscopy, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. The light assisted-batch injection analysis of glucose based on the illuminated p-Cu2O/n-Cu2O/FTO photoelectrode presented a linear response of 10 μmol L-1-1 mmol L-1, a limit of detection of 4.0 μmol L-1, and sensitivity of 0.768 ± 0.011 μA L μmol-1 cm-2. The system presented an average recovery value of 96% when applied to the determination of glucose in an artificial saliva sample, which indicates that the incidence of light on photoelectroactive platforms is a promising approach for the determination and quantification of glucose.