Electrochemical synthesis of CuxO/Cu2S nanocomposites as nonenzymatic glucose sensor

Abstract

The focus of this study is to explore ways of accelerating the corrosion rate of copper anodes for the possible synthesis of copper nano-composites on the counter electrode, and the subsequent applications of such composites as nonenzymatic glucose sensor. Normally, a strong corrosion resistance of copper anodes emerges in alkaline solutions due to the formation of a passive copper hydroxide film, which prevents further corrosion. In this research the presence of sulfide ions in the electrolyte was found to dramatically promote the corrosion process and eventually led to the production of CuxO/Cu2S (where CuxO was consist of Cu2O and CuO) nanocomposites on the counter electrode during the electrochemical corrosion process. When the as-prepared copper nanocomposites electrodes were used to detect the oxidation of glucose, a strongly enhanced anodic process was obtained, in which the detection limit was found to be around 10 uM with a linear range of 10-1000 uM and a detection sensitivity of 2688 uA cm-2 mM-1.