Fluorescent blood glucose monitor by hemin-functionalized graphene quantum dots based sensing system

•Hemin is assembled onto the surfaces of graphene quantum dots (GQDs).•With the aid of hemin, H2O2 could quench the FL signal of GQDs obviously.•Based on this effect, a fluorescent platform is proposed for the sensing of glucose.•The proposed method provides a new pathway to explore practical application of GQDs. In the present work, a highly sensitive and specific fluorescent biosensor for blood glucose monitoring is developed based on hemin-functionalized graphene quantum dots (GQDs) and glucose oxidase (GOx) system. The GQDs which are simply prepared by pyrolyzing citric acid exhibit strong fluorescence and good water-solubility. Due to the noncovalent assembly between hemin and GQDs, the addition of hemin can make hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) to destroy the passivated surface of GQDs, leading to significant fluorescence quenching of GQDs. Based on this effect, a novel fluorescent platform is proposed for the sensing of glucose. Under the optimized conditions, the linear range of glucose is from 9 to 300μM, and the limit of detection is 0.1μM. As unique properties of GQDs, the proposed biosensor is green, simple, cost-efficient, and it is successfully applied to the determination of glucose in human serum. In addition, the proposed method provides a new pathway to further design the biosensors based on the assembly of GQDs with hemin for detection of biomolecules.