Analytica Chimica Acta 738 (2012) 27–34 Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Analytica Chimica Acta j ourna l ho me page: www.elsevier.com/locate/aca Mesoporous carbon amperometric glucose sensors using inexpensive, commercial methacrylate-based binders Mingzhi Dai a,1 , Stephanie Maxwell b,2 , Bryan D. Vogt c,3 , Jeffrey T. La Belle b,∗ a Chemical Engineering program in the School for Engineering of Matter, Transport and Energy at Arizona State University, 550 East Orange St., Tempe, AZ 85287-9709, United States b The Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University and the Harrington Program of Biomedical Engineering in the School of Biological and Health Systems Engineering, 550 East Orange St., Tempe, AZ 85287-9709, United States c Department of Polymer Engineering at University of Akron, 250 S. Forge St., Akron, OH 44325-0301, United States h i g h l i g h t s ◮ We prepared screen printed glucose sensor with two different meso- porous carbons. ◮ We investigated low cost, fluorine- free methacrylate-based as polymer binders. ◮ Cubic structure carbon provided higher signal than hexagonal struc- ture carbon. ◮ Hydrophilicity of the binder greatly impacted the performance of the sensor. ◮ The best sensor accurately measured glucose level in rabbit blood. g r a p h i c a l a b s t r a c t . a r t i c l e i n f o Article history: Received 6 March 2012 Received in revised form 16 May 2012 Accepted 21 May 2012 Available online 7 June 2012 Keywords: Biosensor Diabetes mellitus Glucose monitoring Mesoporous carbon Electrochemistry a b s t r a c t Two ordered, soft-templated mesoporous carbon powders with cubic and hexagonal framework struc- ture and four different commercial, low cost methacrylate-based polymer binders with widely varying physical properties are investigated as screen printed electrodes for glucose sensors using glucose oxidase and ferricyanide as the mediator. Both the chemistry and concentration of the binder in the electrode formulation can significantly impact the performance. Poly(hydroxybutyl methacrylate) as the binder provides hydrophilicity to enable transport of species in the aqueous phase to the carbon surface, but yet is sufficiently hydrophobic to provide mechanical robustness to the sensor. The current from the meso- porous carbon electrodes can be more than an order of magnitude greater than for a commercial printed carbon electrode (Zensor) with improved sensitivity for model glucose solutions. Even when applying these sensors to rabbit whole blood, the performance of these glucose sensors compares favorably to a standard commercial glucose meter with the lower detection limit of the mesoporous electrode being approximately 20 mg dL -1 despite the lack of a separation membrane to prevent non-specific events; these results suggest that the small pore sizes and high surface areas associated with ordered mesoporous carbons may effectively decrease some non-specific inferences for electrochemical sensing. © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. ∗ Corresponding author at: The Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University and the Harrington Program of Biomedical Engineering in the School of Biological and Health Systems Engineering, 550 East Orange St., Tempe, AZ 85287-9709, United States. Tel.: +1 480 727 9061; fax: +1 480 727 7624. E-mail addresses: mingzhi.dai@asu.edu (M. Dai), stephanie.maxwell@asu.edu (S. Maxwell), vogt@uakron.edu (B.D. Vogt), jeffrey.labelle@asu.edu (J.T. La Belle). 1 Tel.: +1 480 727 0055; fax: +1 480 727 7624. 2 Tel.: +1 480 727 0055; fax: +1 480 727 7624. 3 Tel.: +1 330 972 8608; fax: +1 330 253 2339. 0003-2670/$ – see front matter © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.aca.2012.05.038