Engineered CuO Nanofibers with Boosted Non-Enzymatic Glucose Sensing Performance

Abstract

Developing biosensors with advanced nanomaterial is crucial to enhance the sensing performance of the as-fabricated biosensors. Herein, we engineered copper(II) oxide (CuO) nanofibers using a hydrothermal route in a four-neck flask. The structural and morphological properties of as-engineered CuO nanofibers were analysed using an X-ray diffractometer, field-emission scanning, and transmission electron microscopes. The results indicated, CuO nanofibers bear nanosized diameters and length is in the order of micrometers. These CuO nanofibers were utilized to fabricate non-enzymatic biosensors (Nafion/CuO nanofibers/GCE (glassy carbon electrode)) for enhanced glucose detection and the sensing performance of the biosensors were evaluated using cyclic voltammetry (CV) technique in sodium hydroxide buffer. Employing engineered CuO nanofibers as a non-enzymatic material led fabricated biosensor to achieve high sensitivity of 483.10 μMmM–1cm–2, with the lower detection limit (200 nM) and 0.10–10.85 mM linear detection range. Further, the fabricated biosensor showed good reproducibility, excellent selectivity, cyclic and long-time storage stabilities. This work presents a simple hydrothermal technique to prepare CuO nanofibers in large quantity, demonstrating cost-effective synthesis for non-enzymatic biosensor fabrications and many other applications.