Fully-drawn origami paper analytical device for electrochemical detection of glucose

In this work, an origami paper-based analytical device for glucose biosensor by employing fully-drawn pencil electrodes has been reported. The three-electrode system was prepared on paper directly by drawing with nothing more than pencils. By simple printing, two separated zones on paper were designed for the immobilization of the mediator and glucose oxidase (GOx), respectively. The used paper provides a favorable and biocompatible support for maintaining the bioactivities of GOx. With a sandwich-type scheme, the origami biosensor exhibited great analytical performance for glucose sensing including acceptable reproducibility and favorable selectivity against common interferents in physiological fluids. The limit of detection and linear range achieved with the approach was 0.05   mM and 1–12   mM, respectively. Its analytical performance was also demonstrated in the analysis of human blood samples. Such fully-drawn paper-based device is cheap, flexible, portable, disposable, and environmentally friendly, affording great convenience for practical use under resource-limited conditions. We therefore envision that this approach can be extended to generate other functional paper-based devices.