Boosting the performance of enzyme-free biosensing system with Ni–Co bimetallic nanorod anchored on macroporous carbon composites for glucose monitoring

Abstract

In this study, a nickel–cobalt bimetallic nanorod-codoped macroporous carbon nanocomposite (NiCo NR/MPC) was prepared and used for glucose detection. NiCo NR was uniformly embedded into MPC scaffolds. The synergistic effect between the excellent electrocatalytic activity of NiCo NR and the remarkable conductivity of MPC carriers increased the electron transfer and the formation of numerous usable active sites. For glucose detection, the NiCo NR/MPC-glassy carbon electrode (GCE) exhibited a good linear range (0.1–831.7 μM) and a low limit of detection (0.063 μM) (S/N = 3), with a high corresponding sensitivity of 206.8 μA mM−1 cm−2. Additionally, the GCE sensor was used to detect glucose under the same test conditions; the relative standard deviation (RSD) of the sensor was 4% after 10 repeated measurements. This indicated the reproducibility of the constructed NiCo NR/MPC-GCE sensor. Therefore, the constructed NiCo NR/MPC glucose electrochemical sensor has good application prospects.