Dual-responsive Hydrogels for Compensated Biomedical Glucose Sensors

Stimulus-responsive hydrogels are a group of materials that are frequently investigated for their use as transducers in biomedical sensors due to their potential biocompatibility, wide range of available environmental properties to be measured and the established straightforward microfabrication approaches. However, the measurement of biomarkers, such as glucose, is often subject to long response times in the range of minutes to hours, which can be unfavourable for point-of-care applications. One way to significantly reduce these long response times is the force compensation measurement method, in which the time-consuming volume-phase transition (VPT) of the hydrogel is suppressed. An attractive way to implement this method is given by using a dual-responsive hydrogel that, in addition to its original intended stimulus also features a responsiveness to temperature changes. In this work, a dual-responsive hydrogel is presented that is intended for glucose measurement and is equipped with the additional temperature responsiveness for swelling suppression. The measurement range of the hydrogel covers the physiologically relevant level and compensation temperatures are within a biomedically favorable span of 20°C to 40°C. Its dynamic and static swelling properties are specifically tailored for the application in compensated hydrogel-based sensors, which makes it usable for improved glucose sensors and, thus, offers potential for shortening the response time of corresponding glucose measuring devices.