Well-dispersed strawberry-like PtCo nanocrystals/porous N-doped carbon nanospheres for multiplexed assays

Abstract

Small biomolecules such as ascorbic acid (AA), dopamine (DA) and uric acid (UA) coexist in human body, and play decisive roles for evaluating human health. Given that, it is particularly important for rapid and effective detection of their levels in real samples. Enzyme-free electrochemical sensors are widely applied for direct, sensitive and selective monitoring of biomolecules in complex biological environment. Herein, well-dispersed strawberry-like PtCo nanocrystals/porous N-doped carbon nanospheres (PtCo/N-CNSs) were prepared by a one-step pyrolysis. The results showed that the electronic structures and incorporated compositions of the PtCo/N-CNSs tightly correlated to the enhanced electrocatalytic mechanism. Under the optimal conditions, this material based sensor achieved selective detection of AA, DA and UA with broad detection ranges of 30–1900 μM, 0.5–80 μM and 1–145 μM, along with low detection limits (S/N = 3) of 1.02 μM, 0.12 μM and 0.11 μM, respectively. It shows promising applications for actual disease prevention and early diagnosis in clinic.