One-dimensional mesoporous Co3O4 tubules for enhanced performance supercapacitor and enzymeless glucose sensing

Abstract

One-dimensional hollow Co3O4 tubules have been synthesized by using a template method followed by a simple thermal annealing treatment. The obtained hollow Co3O4 nanomaterial displays one-dimensional architecture with a highly mesoporous nature and hollow interiors, leading to better electrolyte/electrode contact and more efficient transport pathways. Our experimental results demonstrate that the hollow Co3O4 nanostructures exhibit enhanced electrochemical performance for charge storage and enzymeless glucose sensing applications. Supercapacitor electrodes employing mesoporous hollow Co3O4 tubules exhibit specific capacitance of 326 F g−1 at a current density of 1 A g−1, a high capacity retention of 73.6% at 10 A g−1, and a long stable cycling performance of retaining ~ 91.6% after 5000 cycles. Compared with the bulk Co3O4, it also has good sensing ability for glucose with high sensitivity of 994.6 μA mM−1 cm−2 and 369.7 μA mM−1 cm−2 for the lower and higher concentration of glucose, fast response time of 5 s, detection limit as low as 0.84 μM, good selectivity, stability, and reproducibility. These results show that the hollow Co3O4 tubules is a versatile material for various applications.