Wearable Electrochemical Biosensors for Glucose Monitoring

The number of people with diabetes is increasing rapidly worldwide due to the aging population and sedentary lifestyle. The only solution to prevent the unwanted side effects of this disease is to control it using daily and continuous measurements of blood sugar. In this regard, finger glucometers are commercially available as the common diagnostic standard tools for self-monitoring of blood glucose. However, these devices are painful and invasive and also they don't have the ability to continuously monitor glucose levels. In recent years, the development of electrochemical biosensors for continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) has become particularly important. Among different types of CGM devices, wearable non/minimally invasive devices have made a huge revolution in glucose biosensors. Minimally invasive microneedles and non-invasive devices based on flexible electrodes have opened a new horizon in the wearable biosensors for glucose monitoring. In this chapter, two main types of wearable electrochemical CGM devices including microneedles and flexible electrodes are evaluated. Principles of operation and various materials applied in the devices are discussed. Moreover, the advantages of self-powered wearable devices are explained.