Electrochemical study of glucose oxidation on Pt/NiO Nanoparticles at neutral media

Non-enzymatic glucose biofuel cells (GBFCs) has been renewed interest because of good longterm stability and adequate power density [1, 2]. Noble metals such as Pt have been commonly used as electro catalytic material for glucose oxidation reaction. Platinum is very rare and expensive, Pt doped metal oxide catalysts have been mainly utilized in the practical fuel cells to solve these problems [3]. In this research, nickel oxide nanoparticles synthesized with a simple hydrothermal method and characterized with X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). For evaluating electrochemical activities of synthesized electrocatalysts, the electrodes were fabricated on carbon paper with Pt (with various amounts) doped NiO, PTFE and activated carbon powder in reaction layer of prepared electrodes. Based on obtained results of cyclic voltammetry (CV) and linear sweep voltammetry (LSV),10% Pt doped NiO showed high electro catalytic activity for glucose oxidation in 5 mM solution of glucose and in phosphate buffer solution (pH 7.4) at room temperature. In addition, electrochemical surface area of this electrocatalyst reached 128 m2 g−1, which was higher than that of commercial Pt/C electrocatalyst (32.45 m2 g−1). Such low-cost electrocatalyst can be suitable candidate for glucose fuel cells.