Electrocatalytic Oxidation of Glucose on the Composite
Electrode of Carbon Nanotube-CuO Nanoparticles
T. Alizadeh1, Sh. Mirzagholipour1
1
Department of Applied Chemistry, Faculty of Science, University of Mohaghegh Ardabili,
Daneshgah Street, Ardabil, Iran
E-mail: alizadeh@uma.ac.ir (T. Alizadeh)
Keywords: Glucose, Carbon nanotube, CuO nanoparticles
Since reliable and fast determination of glucose is important in many areas such as
biotechnology, clinical diagnostics and food industry, the development of electrochemical
glucose sensor has attracted extensive attention. Enzyme-modified glucose sensors have
some disadvantages, such as instability, high cast of enzymes, complicated immobilization
procedure, critical operating situation, etc. Therefore nonenzymatic glucose sensors have
been developed to solve these problems [1].
Recently, carbon nanotubes(CNTs) have been rapidly becoming electrode material.
Carbon nanotubes consist of cylindrical graphene sheets with nanometer dimension, and
show many unique characteristics such as large ratio of surface area to mass, high electrical
conductivity and remarkable mechanical strength. The unique properties of carbon
nanotubes have prompted major research efforts aimed at finding practical applications for
these materials. Reports already exist on the evaluation of nanotubes as electrodes for
supercapacitors, batteries and sensors [2]. On the other hand, as a p-type semiconductor
with a narrow band gap, cupric oxide(CuO) has been widely studied because of its numerous
applications in catalysis, gas sensors, biosensors, semiconductors and field transistors [1, 3].
In this work, CuO nanoparticles were synthesized by two methods known as sol-gel
and alcohothermal methods. A nanocomposite containing multi-walled carbon nanotubes
(MWCNTs) and CuO nanoparticles was prepared in order to non-enzymatically detect
glucose. The prepared nanocomposite was characterized by scanning electron microscopy
(SEM). The electrochemical performance of the electrode, modified with CuO-MWCNTs for
glucose detection, was investigated by differential pulse voltammetry. The CuO-MWCNTs
electrode showed higher electrocatalytic activity than the bare MWCNTs electrode towards
oxidation of glucose. The results showed that the finer particles of CuO lead to enhanced
electrical conductivity and improved electrochemical signals. The high performance of the
novel sensor is mainly attributed to high surface area and enhanced electrical conductivity of
the MWCNTs. Also, the effect of MWCNTs/CuO ratio and concentration of supporting
electrolyte on the electrode performance was studied and optimized.
References
[1] L. Jiang, W. Zhang, “A highly sensitive nonenzymatic glucose sensor based on CuO
nanoparticles-modified carbon nanotube electrode”, Biosensors and Bioelectronics, 25
(2010) 1402
[2] R. Jahan Bakhsh, R. Ojani, F. Chekin, “Fabrication of functionalized carbon nanotube
modified glassy carbon electrode and its application for selective oxidation and voltammetric
determination of cysteamine”, Journal of Electroanalytical Chemistry, 633 (2009) 187
[3] Zh. Hong, Y. Coa, J. Deng, “A convenient alcohothermal approach for low temperature
synthesis of CuO nanoparticles”, Materials Letters, 52 (2002) 34