Development of Novel Polymer Membrane Fabrication Process for Intelligent Biosensors

In recent years, there has been an effort to develop self-calibrating electrochemical biosensors that require minimal human intervention. The overall goal of this project is to develop an implantable microchip capable of continuously monitoring blood glucose levels. Detection of glucose will be accomplished indirectly by measuring the fluorescence of europium tetracycline (EuTc) in the presence of hydrogen peroxide, a product of the reaction between glucose and glucose oxidase. One challenge of using EuTc arises from the fact that it is sensitive to phosphate ions, necessitating the use of a polymer-based charge-mosaic membrane to separate phosphate ions from the blood stream before reaching the EuTc detection matrix. Current methods for the fabrication of such membranes are time-consuming and expensive. This project demonstrates a novel, inexpensive method of fabricating a sealed-in charge-mosaic membrane using readily-available photolithographic techniques.