Rapid and sensitive smartphone non-enzymatic colorimetric assay for the detection of glucose in food based on peroxidase-like activity of Fe3O4@Au nanoparticles

A low-cost and reliable analytical method based on the combination of a newly designed Fe3O4@Au as peroxidase mimetics, supported on smartphone analysis software package was proposed for the determination of glucose content in food samples. The nanocomposite was prepared by self-assembling technique, and the characterization was carried out using transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Fourier transforms infrared, and X-ray diffractometer. Record the color change of the solution with a smartphone camera and optimize the operation parameters and reaction conditions. A smartphone with a free self-developed app was accustomed live the RGB (red–greenblue) values of color intensity within the Fe3O4@Au system and were processed with Image J software before computationally convert them glucose concentrations. At the optimization experiment, reaction temperature of 60 °C, reaction time of 50 min and the amount of addition of Fe3O4@Au 0.0125 g was the optimal combination of detecting glucose smartphone color detection system. Hereon, the accuracy of the proposed method was evaluated by comparison between smartphone colorimetry and UV–vis spectrophotometer, a linear calibration in the range of 0.25 ∼ 15 mmol/L glucose was obtained with minimum detection limit of 1.83 and 2.25 μmol/L, respectively. The proposed method was applied effectively to the detection of glucose in actual samples. The results were in accordance with the conventional UV–vis spectrophotometer method.