Fabrication of Ni–Mo–Nb metallic glass/micro-nano lattice composite for nonenzymatic glucose sensing

Abstract

The rising global diabetic population has ignited significant interest in enzyme-free electrochemical glucose sensors. However, their widespread usage has been severely impeded by the lack of sensing probes with both high sensitivity and stability. In this work, we present a novel approach for conformally depositing a Ni–Mo–Nb metallic-glass film onto a three-dimensional printed polymer skeleton for glucose detection. The printing template is designed based on a six-membered tricapped trigonal prism (6M-TTP) structure, which is derived from a medium-range order structure motif observed in amorphous alloys. The fabricated composite combines the high electrochemical activity of Ni–Mo–Nb amorphous alloy with the stability afforded by the micro-nano lattice structure, resulting in a high sensitivity (482 ​μA mM−1cm−2), a wide linear range (0–1 ​mM and 1–5 ​mM), a low detection limit (2.94 ​μM), and good long-term stability and selectivity in alkaline solution. Our work has proposed a new avenue to fabricate complex micro-nano electrodes, potentially offering significant versatility and great promise for widespread applications in the field of electrochemistry.