Nanoreactor based on Cu nanoparticles confined in B, N co-doped porous carbon nanotubes for glutathione biosensing.

Abstract

Acost-effective approach has been developedto synthesize Cu nanoparticles encapsulated into B and N double-doped carbon nanotubes (Cu@BCNNTs) by one-step pyrolysis. According to the specific binding of Cu-Cl and Cu-glutathione (GSH), we employed Cu@BCNNTs to build an electrochemical sensing platform to detect GSH. The unique space-confined structure can prevent Cu nanoparticles from agglomeration. In addition, B and N co-doped porous hollow tubes can improve the electrochemical conductivity, expand the number of active sites, enhance surface adsorption, and shorten the transport path. These favorable characteristics of Cu@BCNNTs make them have excellent electrocatalytic properties. These results display that the prepared sensor can detect GSH from 0.5 to 120 μM with adetection limit of 0.024 μM. Theobtained sensors can be successfully applied in the human serum with recovery of GSH ranging from 100.2 to 103.9%. This work provides a new vision to synthesize nanoparticles confined in ahollow tube for the applications in biosensing and medical diagnostics.