Bamboo-derived activated carbon-functionalized ZnO NPs for non-enzymatic glucose sensing

Abstract

Recently, bamboo activated carbon (BAC) attracted the researchers with considerable attention and as electrode material for biosensor application, due to its high surface to volume ratio, low cost, easy of synthesis, good stability, and better profit in the matter of commercialization. The present work report the synthesis of bamboo activated carbon and functionalization of bamboo carbon with ZnO nanoparticles through the green approached method with different weight ratios for non-enzymatic glucose biosensing. Moreover, bamboo leaves work as a capping and stabilizing agent for the functionalization of activated carbon. As synthesized BAC, biosynthesized ZnO and BAC functionalized ZnO NPs with different ratios of ZnO/BAC1wt%, ZnO/BAC 2 wt% and ZnO/BAC 3 wt% were analyzed with nano-characterization tools such as XRD, FTIR, UV–Visible spectroscopy, FESEM, EDX analysis, TEM. As fabricated modified electrodes ZnO/BAC 2 wt% showed better conductivity followed by ZnO/BAC 3 wt% and ZnO/BAC1wt%. Moreover, the electrochemical performance of the modified ZnO/BAC 2 wt% /Screen printed gold electrode (SPCE) exhibited good catalytic nature towards the enzyme-free glucose oxidation and the results showed an excellent sensitivity of 5048.61 μA mM−1 Cm−2, the limit of detection 0.40 μM with linearity of 1–2 mM with better stability and repeatability. This proves that a fabricated ZnO/BAC 2 wt% /SPCE sensor will be a cost-effective biosensor.