Glucose biosensor, as one of the most popular biosensors, has been intensively investigated due to its importance in clinics, environment and food industry. Glucose amperometric biosensor using glucose oxidase (GOD) as the enzyme is one of the most popular biosensors to be intensively investigated.

Application of ZnO nanostructure in the glucose biosensors just appeared in the last several years. Table 1 summarizes the state-of-the-art of ZnO utilization for enzyme immobilization in electrochemical biosensor platforms and their analytical performances. Physical adsorption is the mostly used method for enzyme immobilization. ZnO nanocomb, prepared by vapor-phase transport, was reported relatively early as a platform for glucose detection [13]. During the manufacturing process for ZnO nanocombs [Figure 1(a)], the temperature was controlled at 900 ^○C. A mixture of ZnO and graphite powders was used as reaction raw material sources, and argon and oxygen were used as carrier gas and reaction gas, respectively. For enzyme immobilization, GOD was physically adsorbed onto the nanocomb modified Au electrode and covered by Nafion solution. The prepared biosensor had a diffusion-controlled electrochemical behavior and a fast response time, within 10 s. The value of K_M (Michaelis-Menten constant) was reported to be 2.19 mM. Using a similar technique, Weber et al. obtained ZnO nanowires with a typical length of 0.5–2 μm and a diameter of 40–120 nm [Figure 1(b)], which were grown from the substrate with an array of ZnO nanowires [14]. For the enzyme immobilization, physical adsorption was also adopted to immobilize GOD onto the electrode. Such a prepared biosensor had a wider linear range from 0.1 to 10 mM, compared to those of others [14].

ZnO nanowires can also be obtained using thermal evaporation, in which ZnS powders are thermally evaporated under controlled conditions with Au thin film as a catalyst layer [15]. GOD was immobilized onto ZnO nanowires [Figure 1(c)] via physical adsorption. K_M and sensitivity could be modulated over a wide range depending on the amount of ZnO/GOD loading on the electrode [15]. Other kinds of ZnO nanostructures, such as ZnO nanonails synthesized by thermal evaporation [Figure 1(d)] [16], are also proposed as a platform for enzyme immobilization. For ZnO nanonails, Zn powder was used as the source of Zn in the reaction, and oxygen was introduced into the system. The protocol used was similar to that as described in [13]. The constructed biosensor showed a high sensitivity of 24.6 μA/cm²·mM. It also exhibited a diffusion-controlled electrochemical behavior with a linear calibration range from 0.1 to 7.1 mM.

Among the various strategies used, a useful and simple way is to grow ZnO directly onto the electrode surface. Based on this approach, Wei et al. [17] fabricated ZnO nanorods directly on the standard Au electrode by hydrothermal decomposition. As shown in Figure 1(e), ZnO nanorods with a hexagonal cross section were uniform in size with a diameter of about 300 nm and a length of 4 μm. Enzyme immobilization was done by a cover of GOD solution on the surface of the electrode. The prepared biosensor presented a quite fast response (within 5 s) and a high sensitivity of 23 μA/cm²·mM. The K_M was as low as 2.9 mM.

Recently, Dai et al. reported tetragonal pyramid-shaped porous ZnO (TPSP-ZnO) nanostructures prepared by a wet chemical route [18]. A glassy carbon electrode (GCE) was modified by covering with a solution of a mixture of TPSP-ZnO and GOD. It showed a surface-controlled behavior. The biosensor had a wider linear response from 0.05 to 8.2 mM and also exhibited good stability and reproducibility. In addition, such a prepared biosensor did not suffer from interference by cooxidizable substances (e.g., ascorbic acid, uric acid and p-acetaminophen).

In addition to ZnO nanostructures as mentioned above, ZnO nanoclusters were also proposed as platforms for biosensor construction [19]. ZnO nanoclusters doped with Co (2%) were obtained by nanocluster-beam deposition [21,22]. Poly(ethyleneterephthalate) (PET) plate was used for enzyme immobilization instead of traditional standard electrode, which was modified firstly by Ti ions implantation and then covered by a thin Au layer. After that ZnO-based nanoclusters were directly grown on the modified PET plate. The mode of enzyme immobilization was also different from those previously reported. Cross-linking via glutaraldehyde was used for enzyme immobilization. The prepared biosensor had a response time under 10 s and the sensitivity was over 13 μA/ cm²·mM.

Recent advances in glucose biosensors involve introducing other nanomaterials with good properties to achieve better biosensor performance. Using this approach, a novel glucose biosensor was developed based on carbon-decorated ZnO nanowire arrays, which took advantage of the conductivity and chemical stability of carbon and the large specific surface area of ZnO nanowires [20]. ZnO nanowire arrays were grown directly on the electrode substrate, and the electron transfer resistance at the electrode was significantly reduced when carbon was introduced. Moreover, direct electron transfer occurred from GOD to carbon, and the ZnO nanowire array provided direct electron pathways for transferring electrons immediately from carbon to the electrode substrate. The developed biosensor had a fast response, within 5 s, and a high sensitivity of 35.3 μA/cm²·mM. A high affinity of GOD for glucose on the carbon-ZnO array (K_M = 1.54 mM) was found, and such a kind of biosensor showed good anti-interference properties towards ascorbic acid and dopamine.

Over the past decades, the determination of hydrogen peroxide has been a very active study area because H₂O₂ plays an important role in the food industry, environmental monitoring and clinical diagnosis [23]. Electrochemical tracking of biological targets by way of enzyme-based H₂O₂ detection is of special interest. Comparing to other analytical techniques, such as spectrometry [24], titrimetry [25], and chemiluminescence [26], electrochemical enzyme biosensors have the advantages of high selectivity of the biological recognition elements and high sensitivity of electrochemical transduction process.

Table 2 summarizes H₂O₂ biosensors based on ZnO nanostructures using different approaches. A H₂O₂ biosensor was developed using waxberry-like ZnO microstructures consisting of nanorods (8–10 nm) as a platform [27]. These ZnO microstructures made by a wet chemical method possessed good biocompatibility without any damage to the secondary structure of the horseradish peroxidase (HRP) on the nano-ZnO/HRP electrode. Such ZnO nanomaterials with high surface areas could provide a platform for the reduction of H₂O₂ by contributing excess electroactive sites and thus providing enhanced electrocatalytic activity. The transport characteristics of the electrode were controlled by the diffusion process. This kind of biosensor had a much wider linear range, from 0.l5 to 15 mM, and a detection limit of 0.115 μM [27]. The modified electrode with carbon-decorated ZnO nanoarrays was also a good platform for H₂O₂ development. At the potential of −0.4 V, the biosensor showed a high sensitivity of 237.8 μA/cm²·mM and fast response of 4 s [20]. Interestingly, the catalytic activity of the enzymes could be improved by irradiating the surface of modified electrode with UV light and thus inducing a photovoltaic effect [28].

In recent years, nanostructured inorganic-organic hybrid materials have emerged for the fabrication of biosensors by entrapping enzymes, which are able to reserve the desirable properties of organic and inorganic materials to a large extent. Organic components (e.g., Nafion, chitosan) benefit the formation of defect-free inorganic membranes and make them less brittle, and the chemical and thermal stability of organic membranes can be improved by an inorganic phase [34–36]. Many efforts have been made recently in order to construct ZnO-based electrochemical biosensors with good performance. For example, a H₂O₂ biosensor with good stability was developed based on a nanoporous ZnO/chitosan inorganic-organic composite film as immobilization matrix [29]. HRP was entrapped in the ZnO/chitosan film. The sensor exhibited a sensitivity of 43.8 μA/cm²·mM, and could retain 80% of its initial current response after 40 days [29]. It was proposed that the numerous nanoscaled cavities on the surface of the microspheres are highly advantageous for the entrapment of enzymes by sequestering them in the cavities or binding on the surface of the microspheres. Based on this approach, Lu et al. synthesized the porous ZnO microspheres consisting of nanosheets using a wet chemical route [30]. Hemoglobin (Hb) was also entrapped in the composite film by thoroughly mixing a Hb solution, ZnO suspension and Nafion solution. In addition to the good reproducibility and long-term stability, the prepared biosensor had a high sensitivity of 137 μA/cm²·mM and a low K_M of 0.143 mM. Porous nanomaterials could provide a larger surface area for protein binding and decrease the diffusion distance for the substrate to access the immobilized enzyme, resulting in the higher sensitivity of the prepared biosensor [30].

Other nanomaterials, such as gold and multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs), are also introduced into the hybrid inorganic-organic composites in order to take advantage of these inorganic nanomaterials. MWCNTs had been widely used to immobilize enzymes to realize direct electron transfer due to their excellent electronic properties [32]. After introducing MWCNTs into the composite system, the modified electrode could thus easily achieve the direct electron transfer between enzyme (e.g., Hb) and electrode. In addition, the presence of biocompatible Nafion in the biocomposite film not only makes the film uniform, but could also lead to an increased Hb activity [37]. Based on these ideas, a biosensor was prepared using the platform consisting of ZnO, MWCNTs and Nafion, which showed a very high sensitivity of 1310 μA/cm²·mM and a very low of K_M of 82.8 μM [32]. It’s known that gold can immobilize enzyme molecules while retaining good bioactivity and enhance the normal electron transfer kinetics of the enzyme electrode [23]. In the literature [31], gold nanoparticles were introduced into composites of ZnO and Nafion with HRP entrapped in the composites [31]. The biosensor had a fast response time under 5 s and a K_M of 1.76 mM. It possessed good reproducibility and showed good stability after one month. Another example based on composites was prepared by mixing of ZnO/chitosan solution and gold solution as immobilization platform; the as-prepared biosensor had a fast response to H₂O₂ within 4 s and excellent linear relationships from 0.19 μM to 1.73 mM [33].

It’s known that ZnO crystals with high IEP are suitable for the electrostatic adsorption of proteins with lower IEP. It is reasonable to immobilize enzyme via electrostatic adsorption and a good example could be found in the reference [23]. The positively-charged ZnO crystals and amine-derivatized chitosan could facilitate higher capability of assembling negatively charged nanogold through strong electrostatic adsorption and the covalent bonds between amine groups and gold [23]. Biocompatible nanogold could further allow HRP to be immobilized with well-retained bioactivity in addition to increased loading amount. The so prepared biosensor can achieve sensitive electrochemical response to H₂O₂ at a potential of −0.2 V.

Phenolic compounds often exist in the wastewaters of many industries, giving rise to environmental problems as many of them are very toxic. The sensitive monitoring of phenolic compounds is thus an important subject for environmental monitoring and a great amount of effort has been devoted to the development of simple and effective analytical methods for the determination of phenolic compounds. Electrochemical detection is the most promoted method due to its low cost for realization and the potential for miniaturization and automation. Tyrosinase is an enzyme with a low IEP of 4.6 [38]. It has good catalyzing selectivity for detection of phenolic compounds and is generally immobilized on electrode surfaces to set up electrochemical biosensors [39]. Generally, the immobilization of tyrosinase is a key step to fabricate a phenol biosensor. The biomolecules of tyrosinase with low IEP could be adsorbed onto ZnO nanostructures with high IEP. Phenol biosensors have thus been developed based on the electrostatic attraction between electropositive ZnO nanostructures and tyrosinase.

The summary of phenol biosensors based on ZnO nanostructures is shown in Table 3. The working potential was mostly fixed at −0.2 V. A reagentless phenol biosensor was prepared by immobilizing tyrosinase on ZnO nanorods through electrostatic attraction and then covered by Nafion, in which ZnO nanorods were fabricated by vapor-phase transport [39]. The electrode reaction was a diffusion-controlled quasi-reversible process. Tyrosinase was adsorbed on the ZnO nanorods and still retained its bioactivity. The biosensor had a fast response of under 5 s and the linear range of concentration spanned from 0.02 to 0.18 mM. A similar strategy for tyrosinase immobilization onto ZnO nanorods by a hydrothermal reaction was reported by Gu et al. [40]. The prepared biosensor had a similar response time below 5 s. There were two different ranges for the sensitivity and linear response and the K_M value was as low as 0.17 μM.

ZnO matrix made by a sol-gel procedure was developed as a platform for tyrosinase immobilization [42]. The porous and positively charged ZnO sol-gel matrix provided a moderate microenvironment for tyrosinase to retain its bioactivity. The so prepared biosensor had a sensitivity of 168 μA/mM, and the linear range covered from 0.15 to 40 μM [42]. Another matrix of ZnO/chitosan was also developed by the same research group for tyrosinase immobilization by dispersion of ZnO nanoparticles into the chitosan solution [41]. The matrix could provide a favored microenvironment in terms of its favorable isoelectric point for tyrosinase loading and the immobilized tyrosinase could retain its bioactivity to a large extent. The biosensor using ZnO/chitosan matrix had a better performance than that using the ZnO sol-gel matrix. K_M was calculated to be 23 μM and the detection limit was lower than 0.05 μM [41]. Recent advances in phenol biosensors include the use of modern processes widely used in semiconductor industry, such as photolithography for designed patterns. A new tyrosinase biosensor was reported based on the covalent immobilization of tyrosinase by glutaraldehyde on biofunctional ZnO nanorod microarrays [43]. The as-prepared biosensor had a sensitivity of 287 μA/cm²·mM and a detection limit of 0.25 μM. The linearity spanned a wide range from 1–150 μM.

Cholesterol and its fatty acid esters are one of the main constituents in human beings as they are the components of nerve and brain cells [44], and are the precursors for other biological materials, such as bile acid and steroid hormones [45]. It is therefore desirable to develop a reliable and sensitive biosensor which can allow for a convenient and rapid determination of cholesterol [46].

Table 4 summarizes the developed cholesterol biosensors using ZnO as platform. Obviously, physical adsorption was generally accepted for cholesterol oxidase (ChOx) immobilization. It is interesting to use porous ZnO thin films as platform for enzyme immobilization [47]. Different from traditional ZnO thin films obtained by RF magnetron sputtering, the ZnO thin film was grown under high pressure (50 mTorr) so as to create native defects and therefore a porous film was formed. The prepared biosensor had a K_M of 2.1 mM and a much wider linear range from 0.65 to 10.34 mM. Cholesterol biosensors could be also constructed using ZnO nanoparticles made by a wet chemical route as platform; they had a high and reproducible sensitivity of 23.7 μA/cm²·mM and a detection limit of 0.37 nA [46].

Recently, an ultra-sensitive cholesterol biosensor was developed using flowerlike ZnO structures. These flowerlike ZnO nanostructures was synthesized by a chemical route [48]. ChOx was immobilized onto the surface of the modified electrode by physical adsorption, followed by covering of the modified electrode with a Nafion solution. The fabricated sensor exhibited a very high and reproducible sensitivity of 61.7 μA/cm²·mM with a detection limit of 0.012 μM. It also had a K_M of 2.57 mM and a fast response time of 5 s [48].

For cholesterol biosensors, an inorganic-organic nanocomposite thin film which consisted of ZnO nanoparticles and chitosan was also proposed to modify electrodes [49]. The resulting ChOx/ZnO-chitosan/ITO bioelectrode exhibited a very low K_M value of 0.22 mM, suggesting the high affinity of the enzyme on the nanocomposite towards cholesterol.

In addition to the above ZnO-based biosensors for substance detection (e.g., glucose, H₂O₂, phenol and cholesterol), other biosensors have also been developed to detect substances including uric acid and urea. The research group of Zhang et al. reported relatively early a uric acid biosensor based on ZnO nanorods formed by thermal evaporation [50]. Uricase, to catalyze the uric acid with a low IEP of 4.3, was immobilized on ZnO nanorods by electrostatic attraction. In addition to a low K_M of 0.24 mM, the prepared biosensor had a linear range from 5 μM to 1 mM and a detection limit of 2 μM according to differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) response investigation. Besides, it had a good thermal stability (10–85 ^○C), indicating that such biosensor could withstand elevations in temperature frequently in excess of those that normally denature the native enzyme [51,52]. A recent development in the field of ZnO-based uric acid biosensors is a highly sensitive and stable uric acid biosensor based on a multilayer structure. Using ZnO nanoparticles and MWCNTs, a multilayer structure was realized firstly with negatively charged MWCNTs cast on pyrolytic wafers, followed by the decoration of ZnO nanoparticles [53]. Uricase was immobilized onto ZnO nanoparticles also by electrostatic attraction, and finally a PDDA layer was coated on the uricase surface. The as-prepared biosensor had a wide linear response range from 1 mM to 5 M and a high sensitivity of 393 μA/cm²·mM. Its long-term stability can over 160 days.

Up to now, not much has been published on ZnO-based urea biosensors. Urea [(NH₂)₂CO] is basically an organic compound of carbon, nitrogen, oxygen and hydrogen. Most organisms use thus route to deal with the excretion of nitrogen originating from protein and amino acid catabolism. Recently, Ansari et al. reported a urea biosensor constructed from ZnO nanostructures [54]. ZnO was synthesized by a chemical route and urease was covalently attached on the ZnO nanostructure. The sensor had a fast response time of 6 s and a linear range of 10–50 mM.