Preparation of Asparagus-Shaped CuO Nanostructures and Their Electrocatalytic Activity for Glucose Oxidation

Abstract

Asparagus-shaped CuO nanostructures were prepared by hydrothermal method using CuCl2·2H2O and NaOH as raw materials, using CTAB as surfactant. The effects of various factors such as the reaction temperature, the surfactant addition amount and the reactants concentration on the CuO crystal phase were studied by X-ray diffraction. The composition and morphology were characterized by Fourier Transform Infrared (FT-IR), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and scanning electron microscope (SEM). A glassy carbon electrode (GCE) modified by asparagus-shaped CuO nanostructures was used as the working electrode, the Ag/AgCl electrode was used as the reference electrode, and Pt wire electrode was used as the auxiliary electrode, the electrocatalytic activity for glucose was tested in a three-electrode system. Cyclic voltammetry (CV) curves show that the redox peak current of 0.1 M NaOH electrolyte with glucose is larger than that of NaOH without glucose, indicating that asparagus-shaped CuO nanostructures have good catalytic oxidation performance for glucose. The mechanism of electrocatalytic oxidation of glucose has been proposed.