Enokitake Mushroom-like Standing Gold Nanowires toward Wearable Noninvasive Bimodal Glucose and Strain Sensing

We have recently demonstrated that Enokitake mushroom-like gold with nanoparticles as the “head” and nanowires as the “tail” could grow directly on elastomeric substrates, which are extremely stretchable electrodes that can be used as wearable sensors for detecting strain and pressure. In this work, we show that such electrodes can also be used as intrinsically stretchable glucose biosensors. By modifying the vertical gold nanowire electrodes with glucose oxidase and Prussian blue nanoparticles, a limit of detection of 10 μM, sensitivity of 23.72 μA·mM–1·cm–2, and high selectivity can be achieved. The as-obtained glucose biosensors were able to maintain a high sensing performance under various mechanical deformations. Even for 30% strain, a sensitivity of 4.55 μA·mM–1·cm–2 toward glucose detection in the artificial sweat was possible. Furthermore, it was found that strains could be simultaneously detected with a gauge factor of 2.30 (strain 0–10%) and 22.64 (strain 10–20%), demonstrating the potential of such bimodal sensors to allow simultaneous monitoring of physical and biological signals.