A study of polyaniline deposited nanocrystalline diamond films for glucose detection

Nitrogen-doped nanocrystalline diamond (NCD) films have been deposited on Si substrates in CH4/Ar/N2 gas mixtures by the microwave plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (MPECVD) technique. Such films contain very small diamond grains (10 to 30 nm) with high electrical conductivity (126 ohms(-1) cm(-1)) compared to un-doped ones. The films were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Raman spectroscopy. Near edge X-ray fine structure studies showed that the nitrogen-doped NCD had slightly higher sp2/sp3 bonding ratio compared to the un-doped sample. A nitrogen-doped NCD electrode was functionalized by conducting polymer films (polyaniline) to work as an interface for biomedical applications. Glucose sensing has been demonstrated based on this functionalized electrode. Linear response of the sensor has been observed for glucose concentration up to 9 mM.