Glucose selective Surface Plasmon Resonance-based bis-boronic acid sensor

Saccharides – a versatile class of biologically important molecules – are involved in a variety of physiological and pathological processes, but their detection and quantification is challenging. Herein, surface plasmon resonance and self-assembled monolayers on gold generated from bis-boronic acid bearing a thioctic acid moiety, whose intramolecular distance between the boronic acid moieties is well defined, are shown to detect D-glucose with high selectivity, demonstrating a higher affinity than other saccharides probed, namely D-galactose, D-fructose and D-mannose.