Copper Nanoparticles Decorated Halloysite Nanotube/Polyaniline Composites for High Performance Non-Enzymatic Glucose Sensor

Abstract

Developing high-performance sensors for glucose detection is of great significance in clinical diagnostics and life science. This paper presents a non-enzymatic electrochemical glucose sensor with high performance. The halloysite nanotube/polyaniline (HNT/PANI) nanocomposite was obtained by chemical oxidation polymerization of aniline on the surface of halloysite nanotubes, then a highly sensitive non-enzymatic glucose sensor based on Cu nanoparticles decorated halloysite nanotube/polyaniline (Cu-HNT/PANI) nanocomposite was fabricated by in situ reduction of Cu precursor on HNT/PANI nanotubes under mild condition. Benefits from the high specific surface area and abundant active sites of the conductive substrate, the Cu-HNT/PANI nanocomposites modified glass carbon electrodes (GCE) exhibited significantly enhanced glucose sensing performance. The glucose sensor based on Cu-HNT/PANI composite demonstrated an excellent linear relationship in glucose concentrations range of 0.01–5 mM. The sensitivity in low concentration range (0.01–0.1 mM) reached 434.0 μA mM−1 cm−2 with the detection limit of 0.27 μM (S/N = 3). Besides, the Cu-HNT/PANI composites modified GCE exhibited extraordinary selectivity, stability and reproducibility in glucose sensing. Taking advantage of the low cost and mild synthesis conditions, Cu-HNT/PANI is a promising glucose-sensing material with broad application prospect.