Synthesis of CuO nanostructures and their application for nonenzymatic glucose sensing

CuO flowers and nanorods have been synthesized for the first time by the composite-hydroxide-mediated and the composite-molten-salt method, respectively, with advantages of one-step, ambient pressure, low temperature, template-free and low cost. Both nanostructures have been applied to modify the graphite substrates for nonenzymatic glucose detection. Compared with bare graphite electrode, the new electrodes exhibit excellent catalysis to direct glucose oxidation. Though the electrode based on the CuO flowers has higher sensitivity than that of the CuO nanorods modified electrode, the latter presents a much better linear range of glucose concentration and a shorter response time. Both electrodes exhibit the same detection limit of glucose as low as 4 μM. In addition, the detection of dopamine and ascorbic acid has also been carried out on these CuO nanostructure modified electrodes, indicating good selectivity for glucose detection.