Enzyme-free glucose sensors with efficient synergistic electro-catalysis based on a ferrocene derivative and two metal nanoparticles

Gold electrodes (GE) were modified by the deposition of copper nanoparticles (CuNPs) and cobalt nanoparticles (CoNPs), followed by drop-casting of the ferrocene derivative FcCO-Glu-Cys-Gly-OH (Fc-ECG), resulting in two enzyme-free electrochemical sensors Fc-ECG/CuNPs/GE and Fc-ECG/CuNPs/GE. The ferrocene-peptide conjugate acts as an effective redox mediator for glucose oxidation, while metal nanoparticles acted as non-biological sites for glucose oxidation. Field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), cyclic voltammetry (CV) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) were carried out for characterization, while differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) was used for glucose quantification. Under optimized conditions, DPV shows a linear relationship between glucose concentration and the peak current. Both sensors showed a surprisingly high sensitivity of 217.27 and 378.70 μA mM⁻¹ cm⁻², respectively. A comparison to other glucose sensors shows a sensitivity that is 25 times higher. The sensors exhibit good reproducibility, stability, and repeatability. In injection experiments, recovery rates were 87.39–107.65% and 100.00–106.88%, respectively.

We exploit the ferrocene–glutathione conjugate Fc-ECG as electron transfer mediator and make use of gold electrodes that were modified with either copper or cobalt nanoparticles to give sensor surfaces that exhibit excellent catalytic activity of glucose oxidation.

Cobalt phosphide nanowall array as an efficient 3D catalyst electrode for methanol electro-oxidation

In this letter, we report on the use of a cobalt phosphide nanowall array on conductive carbon cloth (CoP NA/CC) as an efficient catalyst electrode for methanol electro-oxidation under alkaline conditions. This CoP NA/CC achieves a current density of 96 mA cm(-2) toward 0.5 M methanol at 0.5 V (versus a saturated calomel electrode (SCE)) in 1 M KOH. Moreover, this electrode exhibits superior stability and 93% of the initial anodic current density can be retained after 1000 cyclic voltammetry cycles when re-measured in new electrolyte.