Hydrogel Membrane Improves Batch‐to‐Batch Reproducibility of an Enzymatic Glucose Biosensor

A permselective membrane is a critical component that defines the linear detection limits, the sensitivity, and thus the ultimate efficacy of an enzymatic biosensor. Although membranes like epoxy-polyurethane (epoxy-PU) and Nafion are widely used and provide the desired glucose detection limits of 2 to 30 mM, both the within batch and batch-to-batch variability of sensors that use these materials is a concern. The hypothesis for this study was that a crosslinked hydrogel would have a sufficiently uniform porosity and hydrophilicity to address the variability in sensor sensitivity. The hydrogel was prepared by crosslinking di-hydroxyethyl methacrylate, hydroxyethyl methacrylate and N-vinyl pyrrolidone with 2.5 mol% ethylene glycol dimethacrylate using water soluble initiators ammonium persulfate and sodium metabisulfite under a nitrogen atmosphere. The hydrogel was applied to the sensor by dip coating during polymerisation. Electrochemical measurements revealed that the response characteristics of sensors coated with this membrane are highly consistent. Scanning electrochemical microscopy (SECM) was used to spatially resolve glucose diffusion through the membrane by measuring the consequent H2O2 release and compared with an epoxy-PU membrane. Hydrogen peroxide measurements using SECM revealed that the epoxy-PU membranes had uneven lateral diffusion profiles compared to the uniform profile of the hydrogel membranes. The uneven diffusion profiles of epoxy-PU membranes are attributed to a fabrication method that results in uneven membrane properties, while the uniform diffusion profiles of the hydrogel membranes are primarily dictated by their uniform pore size.