Facile Synthesis of Cuprous Oxide/Gold Nanocomposites for Nonenzymatic Amperometric Sensing of Hydrogen Peroxide

Abstract

AbstractIn this work, a facile preparation method of cuprous oxide/gold (Cu2O/Au) nanocomposite was successfully developed. The process consisted of one‐pot co‐reduction of HAuCl4 and CuSO4 using ascorbic acid (AA) as a reducing agent at room temperature under magnetic stirring. The structures and compositions of the as‐prepared products were characterized by SEM, EDS, and XRD. Cyclic voltammetry and chronopotentiometry studies revealed that the as‐prepared cubic Cu2O/Au nanocomposites showed enhanced performance towards the non‐enzymatic catalytic reduction of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) when compared to single‐component Cu2O nanocubes. The linear range of H2O2 determination spanned over 4 orders of magnitude (1 μM∼16.7 mM) and the detection limit was low as 0.45 μM (S/N=3). The enhanced performance of cubic Cu2O/Au was attributed to: i) the synergistic effect between Cu2O and Au, ii) the increase in surface area induced by the reduced size of the nanocubes, and iii) the improved electrical conductivity due to the presence of Au in the particles. Overall, the cubic Cu2O/Au nanocomposites prepared by the proposed method hold great promise for future practical use in H2O2 detection.