A non-enzymatic photoelectrochemical glucose sensor based on BiVO₄ electrode under visible light

A non-enzymatic photoelectrochemical (PEC) glucose sensor based on nanoporous bismuth vanadate (BiVO₄) electrode is fabricated on fluorine doped tin oxide by electrochemical deposition. The photogenerated holes of BiVO₄ show a strong oxidizing ability, with adsorption of glucose on the surface of BiVO₄, agreeing well with the classical Langmuir adsorption model. Under visible light irradiation, the glucose molecules adsorbed on the BiVO₄ electrode surface can be oxidized by the photogenerated holes, which results in increased photocurrent. The fabricated BiVO₄ non-enzymatic photoelectrochemical sensor shows outstanding catalytic activity, favourable selectivity, good reproducibility, and long-term stability for glucose detection under optimized conditions. The linear range was 0–5 mM (correlation coefficient, R = 0.997) with a detection limit of 0.13 μmol L⁻¹ (signal-to-noise = 3). In addition, the proposed PEC sensor was successfully applied to detect glucose in human serum samples. Our work provides a new strategy for the non-enzymatic detection of glucose.