Novel one-pot hydrothermal fabrication of cuprous oxide-attapulgite/graphene for non-enzyme glucose sensing

Abstract

A novel cuprous oxide-attapulgite/graphene based non-enzyme biosensor was constructed successfully for the detection of glucose. Graphite oxide and Cu²⁺-functionalized attapulgite were simultaneously reduced by hydrazine hydrate under mild hydrothermal conditions in one pot, and subsequently dried at 80 °C in air to obtain cuprous oxide-attapulgite/graphene composites. The composites were characterized by XRD, Raman spectroscopy, EDX and SEM. Due to the synergistic effect of cuprous oxide-attapulgite and graphene, the as-prepared composites presented excellent electrocatalytic performances. The cuprous oxide-attapulgite/graphene modified electrode exhibited sensitive linear amperometric responses to glucose in the concentration range of 4.0 × 10⁻⁵ M to 3.0 × 10⁻³ M (R = 0.996), and the detection limit was calculated to be 2.1 × 10⁻⁶ M. The as-prepared modified electrode was highly selective for glucose in the presence of common interfering species in biological fluids, such as dopamine, ascorbic acid and uric acid.