A portable micro glucose sensor based on copper-based nanocomposite structure

Abstract

Precisely detecting the concentration of glucose in the human body is an attractive way to prevent or treat diabetes. Portable glucose sensors with non-enzymatic catalytic materials have received great attention in recent years. Herein, a facile strategy for fabricating a high-performance electrochemical sensor is proposed. A non-enzymatic three-electrode integrated glucose sensor device based on CuO nano-coral arrays/nanoporous Cu (NCA/NPC) is designed and fabricated. The portable NCA/NPC glucose sensor device exhibits high catalytic activity for glucose. The great performance of the NCA/NPC glucose sensor device derives from the excellent conductivity of the NPC substrate and the high electrocatalytic activity of CuO nano-coral arrays. This device exhibits a high sensitivity of 1621 μA mM⁻¹ cm⁻² in the linear range of 0.0005–5.0 mM, low detection limit of 200 nM (S/N = 3), fast response time of 3 s, good anti-interference performance, excellent repeatability and considerable stability for glucose detection. This work will certainly provide an efficient structure and proper catalytic material choices for future non-enzymatic glucose sensors.