Flow-injection analysis of glucose without enzyme based on electrocatalytic oxidation of glucose at a nickel electrode

This paper reports a flow-injection analysis (FIA) of glucose not using enzyme based on the electrocatalytic oxidation of glucose at a nickel electrode. The electrocatalytic mechanism and quantificational method of glucose have been investigated. The current intensity of the electrocatalytic oxidation to glucose at the potential of 550 mV is proportional to the concentration of glucose over the range of 0.10–2.50 mmol l−1, with a 0.04 mmol l−1 detection limit (S/N = 3) and a correlation coefficient of 0.9991. The relative standard deviation (R.S.D.) is less than 4.3% (n = 5) for the determination of practical serum samples. The biologic compounds probably existed in the sample, such as ascorbic acid, uric acid, dopamine and epinephrine, do not disturb the determination of glucose. The result is satisfactory for the determination of glucose in human serum sample as comparison to that from the routine hexokinase method.