Copper Oxide Decorated Zinc Oxide Nanostructures for the Production of a Non-Enzymatic Glucose Sensor

Chung-En Cheng,Hsin-Ming Cheng,Sripansuang Tangsuwanjinda,Po-Han Lee

doi:10.3390/coatings11080936

Abstract

The glucose concentration in human blood can have a worrisome impact on human health, so the distribution of blood glucose contaminants in the human body is an important indicator that can be used to monitor diabetes. Diabetes affects many parts of the human body, such as neurological impairment, erectile dysfunction, and hardening of the arteries resulting in organ loss. In this study, cyclic voltammetry (CV) was used to process the electrical properties of a solution by preparing electrodes with CuO nanoparticles modified ZnO tetrapod nanostructures deposited on fluorine-doped tin oxide glass (CuO/ZnO/FTO). The measurements were processed in glucose solutions of different concentrations purposing for developing the sensitivity of the sensor. Different immersion times in the precursor copper sulfate solution were also used for preparing the electrode and carried out for electrochemical studies to adjust the electrode capability. The modified electrode, which was immersed in copper sulfate for 30 s, was efficient in detecting glucose molecules in different concentrations at the potential of +0.6 V. The rising slope is strongly and positively correlated with the concentration of glucose. One of the significant results is the indication that glucose concentration is linearly proportional to the current value of CV. After the measurement test with the addition of interference, the sensor can still identify the glucose concentration in the solution without being affected. This result proves that the sensor has considerable potential for developing into a high-performance non-enzymatic glucose sensor.

Highlights

Glucose monitoring using sensors is an active research area because high levels of glucose in the blood could cause diabetes
The coefficient line analysis with different glucose concentrations at a potential of +0.6 V displays a linear regression line until a glucose concentration of 7 mM. All these results remained stable after several measurements, indicating the high stability, high sensitivity, and high electrocatalytic characteristics of this sensor. These results suggest that the tetrapod structure of ZnO provides a large surface area to attach more CuO nanoparticles (CuO NPs) on the surface, greatly improving the catalytic performance of CuO/ZnO/fluorine-doped tin oxide-coated (FTO) in glucose detection
The CuO nanocrystallines were uniformly decorated on the surface of the tetrapod-like ZnO nano-powders which were obtained by the direct current plasma method

Summary

Introduction

Glucose monitoring using sensors is an active research area because high levels of glucose in the blood could cause diabetes. Nanomaterials have played a crucial role in developing the glucose observation system [5,6,7] because of their large surface area and high electrochemical activity [8,9]. The enzyme-containing glucose sensor faces many problems, such as being affected by high temperatures and humidity, which causes a loss of measurement accuracy and decreases sensitivity [14,15]. Nanostructured transition-metal oxides, which exhibit better catalytic activity in alkaline media, have been used to create high-performance non-enzymatic glucose sensors [18,19,20,21,22]

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Results

Discussion

Conclusion