Ni-BTC Derived Porous Ni/C/Graphene Composite for Highly Sensitive Non-enzymatic Electrochemical Glucose Detection

Abstract

Electrochemical detection of glucose, including enzymatic and non-enzymatic detections, has gained widespread attention due to its rapid response, unparalleled sensitivity, and common applications in both biomedical and healthcare fields. Compared with enzymatic glucose detection, non-enzymatic detection has lower cost, better stability and simpler immobilization operation. However, due to relatively inert nature of glucose and prone-to-contaminant characteristic of solid electrodes, non-enzymatic glucose detection suffers from weak sensitivity and reproducibility. To address these problems, various transition metal-based materials and graphene-based materials have been explored to improve electrochemical responses to glucose. Herein, a highly sensitive non-enzymatic glucose detection electrocatalyst was synthesized by in-situ growing porous NiO nanoparticles derived from Ni-BTC (1,3,5-Benzenetricarboxylic acid) on graphene (NiO/G). By virtue of highly porous Ni-BTC as a precursor, the composite exhibited homogeneous metal distribution, massive exposure of active sites, and spatially ordered structure. The NiO/G demonstrated superior steadiness, electron transfer rate, excellent electrocatalytic activity towards glucose oxidation, and high sensitivity (1030 μA mM −1 cm −2 ) in alkaline media. Thus, the NiO/G can be utilized as electrocatalysts for applications in non-enzymatic glucose detection, and the preparation strategy can be used to synthesize other nano-composites with low cost, such as CuO/G and Co/G, for non-enzyme glucose sensors.