Organic hydrogels can be a promising candidate for building long-term functioning glucose biosensors
In a new study, published online in the journal American Chemical Society (ACS)
Applied Polymer Materials, scientists at Texas A&M University reported they have designed a hydrogel membrane that may be used to house optical glucose sensing materials, toward building a biosensor for monitoring sugar levels in diabetics.
By incorporating dangling, comb-type molecular chains within a type of hydrogel called poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) or poly NIPAAm for short, they showed that the membrane could prevent leakage of small-sized molecules, like the ones for glucose-sensing, while still allowing glucose to freely diffuse in and out.