Enzymatic and Enzyme-Free Electrochemical Lactate Sensors: A Review of the Recent Developments

Abstract

Lactate is a useful analytical indicator in various fields. The lactate monitoring benefits from evaluating the body's condition, as excessive muscle use or fatigue can result in injury. Further, it is useful for alerting to emergencies like haemorrhage, hypoxia, respiratory distress, and sepsis. Additionally, the determination of the food's lactate level is very important in examining freshness, storage stability, and fermentation degree. Given such benefits, the determination of lactate in various samples has been widely explored, especially using electrochemical sensor technology. Despite enzymatic sensors being the focus of numerous studies, enzyme-free platforms have gained focus over the last few years to address the matter of enzyme stability. This review article respectfully offers an overview of the concepts, applications, and recent advances of electrochemical lactate detection platforms. A comparison of hot research for enzymatic and enzyme-free lactate sensors in terms of electrode surface engineering, enzymes and their immobilisation matrices, and several analytical parameters, including linear dynamic range, the limit of detection, sensitivity, and stability, have been discussed. In addition, future perspectives have been highlighted in this review.