Highly sensitive and portable electrochemical detection system based on AuNPs@CuO NWs/Cu2O/CF hierarchical nanostructures for enzymeless glucose sensing

Abstract We developed AuNPs@CuO NWs/Cu2O/CF hierarchical nanostructures for portable and enzymeless glucose detection. The CuO nanowires/Cu2O nanocomposites were firstly obtained by in-situ growth on three-dimensional copper foam (CuO NWs/Cu2O/CF) and Au nanoparticles (AuNPs@CuO NWs/Cu2O/CF) were added by electrodeposition. These as-synthesized hierarchical nanostructures of AuNPs@CuO NWs/Cu2O/CF were then used as sensing electrode and placed in a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) chamber for preparation of sensing element. The portable electrochemical detection system was developed with the sensing element, application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) and smartphone APP. To optimize the electrocatalytic performance of the AuNPs@CuO NWs/Cu2O/CF sensing element, the influence of Au content on enzymeless glucose detection was systemically studied by varying the Au deposition time. Our results show that the as-prepared Au100NPs@CuO NWs/Cu2O/CF sensor exhibits the optimal electrocatalytic properties for glucose detection, including higher sensitivity of 1.619 μA/μM/cm2, larger linear interval of 2.82000 μM and lower detection limit of 0.9 μM. Noticeably, this portable detection system exhibits outstanding electrocatalytic performance which can be used to monitor the glucose level and its changing trend in the sweat.