A device for detecting chemical species in liquids having one or more
sensor elements is described. Each sensor element includes a test
electrode coated with a perfluorinated ion-exchange polymer film
incorporating a redox mediator; an immobilized enzyme layer and, over
this, a semipermeable membrane. The invention discloses the method whereby
the test electrode is normally kept at a zero potential and then poised at
a positive potential for a few milliseconds during which time the test
signal is evaluated. The invention formulates a method for calibrating
each measurement sample and reference solution wells. These are
symetrically arranged with respect to the sensor element so that the
center of the sample solution well and the center of the reference
solution well are equidistant to the sensor element. Thus the diffusion of
chemical species from the sample and reference solutions occurs equally
and can be correlated. The invention additionally discloses a method for
selectively detecting a number of species in a single sample drop through
the provision of multi-sensor elements. The technique proposed in the
invention is particularly suitable for the determination of glucose and
cholesterol in biological fluids.