  Molecular adsorption on surfaces is a key element for many applications,
including sensing and catalysis. Non-invasive sugar sensing has been an active
area of research due to its importance to diabetes care. The adsorption of
sugars on a template surface study is at the heart of matter. Here, we study
doped hexagonal boron nitride sheets ($h$-BNNs) as adsorbing and sensing
template for glucose and glucosamine. Using first principles calculations, we
find that the adsorption of glucose and glucosamine on $h$-BNNs is
significantly enhanced by the substitutional doping of the sheet with Al and
Ga. Including long range van der Waals corrections gives adsorption energies of
about 2 eV. In addition to the charge transfer occurring between glucose and
the Al/Ga-doped BN sheets, the adsorption alters the size of the band gap,
allowing for optical detection of adsorption. We also find that Al-doped boron
nitride sheet is better than Ga-nitride sheet to enhance the adsorption energy
of glucose and glucosamine. The results of our work can be potentially utilized
when designing support templates for glucose and glucosamine.
