Ni Hierarchical Structures Supported on Titania Nanowire Arrays as Efficient Nonenzymatic Glucose Sensor.

Abstract

Developing new advanced nonenzymatic electrochemical nano-sensors for glucose detection has attracted intensive attraction. In this work, we designed a novel nanocomposite nonenzymatic glucose sensor by fabricating hierarchically nanostructured metal nickel on titania nanowire arrays, which was loaded on a transparent conductive substrate (i.e., fluorine-doped tin oxide, FTO) surface by mild hydrothermal method. Due to the large surface area of the hierarchically nanostructured Ni and fast electron transfer of the TiO₂ nanowire arrays electrode, the nanocomposite electrode shows excellent electrochemical activity toward the oxidation of glucose. The electrode exhibits high sensitivity in detecting glucose concentration (1472 μA mM-1 cm-2) with a wide linear range from 2×10-4 M to 2×10-3 M, fast response time (within 5 s), and small detection limit (10 μM) (S/N = 3). The good analytical performance, low cost and simple preparation method make this novel electrode material promising for the development of effective glucose nonenzymatic glucose sensor.