ZnO-CuO composite matrix based reagentless biosensor for detection of total cholesterol.

An efficient reagentless biosensor for determination of free cholesterol and total cholesterol has been realized using a ZnO-CuO composite matrix grown onto ITO coated corning glass substrates by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) technique. The inclusion of CuO in ZnO matrix successfully introduces redox property and provides enhanced electron communication features. The optimized ZnO-CuO composite matrix has been used for development of ChOx/(ZnO-CuO)/ITO/glass and (ChEt-ChOx)/(ZnO-CuO)/ITO/glass bioelectrodes used for selective detection of free and total cholesterol respectively in the range of 0.12-12.93 mM and 0.5-12 mM without using any external mediator. The fabricated biosensors exhibit high sensitivity of about 680 µA mM(-1) cm(-2) and 760 µA mM(-1) cm(-2) towards free cholesterol and total cholesterol respectively with response time of 5 s, along with high shelf life. The results are encouraging and show the promising application of the ZnO-CuO composite matrix for the realization of reagentless integrated implantable biosensor.