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Improving Electrochemical Glucose Biosensors Using Ti₃C₂Tₓ MXene Materials. This study offers important insights into employing pristine Ti₃C₂Tₓ MXenes—rather than composite structures—as promising candidates for next-generation glucose biosensors. It highlights how surface chemistry, film stability, and polymer tuning are key factors in developing high-performance sensing platforms.
Diabetes continues to be a major global health burden, impacting hundreds of millions of individuals. Effective disease control depends heavily on continuous glucose monitoring. In this work, the authors investigated Ti₃C₂Tₓ MXenes as modifiers for the working electrode in electrochemical glucose biosensors and achieved notable performance enhancements relative to traditional sensor architectures. Incorporating Ti₃C₂Tₓ MXenes significantly improved both sensitivity and operational stability. Using Nafion or Aquivion as ionomer binders further enhanced film uniformity and adhesion, mitigating issues such as poor MXene coverage and surface instability. Carefully tuning the polymer concentration was critical for balancing film morphology, mechanical robustness, and electrochemical behavior. Among the tested redox mediators, phenazine methosulfate (PMS) provided the most efficient electron-transfer performance and yielded the best sensor response.
The resulting MXene-based biosensors demonstrated:
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A practical linear detection range of 0.1–5 mM
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Low detection limits (23–48 μM)
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High sensitivities (up to 97.5 μA mM⁻¹ cm⁻²)
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Excellent repeatability and reproducibility
Importantly, the sensors accurately measured glucose in human serum, confirming their real-world applicability.
Overall, this study offers valuable insights into employing pristine Ti₃C₂Tₓ MXenes—rather than composite materials—as strong candidates for next-generation glucose biosensing. It emphasizes the crucial roles of surface chemistry, film stability, and polymer optimization in achieving high-performance devices. Future work should investigate how deposition techniques, MXene flake size, and enzyme immobilization approaches can further enhance analytical performance and long-term stability for biomedical use.