Ultrasonic electrodeposition of platinum nanoflowers and their application in nonenzymatic glucose sensors

Article abstract of DOI:10.1016/j.electacta.2011.11.114

In the present study, Pt nanoflowers were fabricated on the bare Au electrodes by using template-free ultrasonic electrodeposition method. Scanning electron microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, energy dispersive X-ray detector as well as X-ray diffraction were used for the characterization. It was found that Pt nanoflowers were composed of metallic Pt. The electrocatalytic properties of the Pt nanoflowers electrode for glucose oxidation were investigated by cyclic voltammetry and differential pulse voltammetry. Cyclic voltammograms (CVs) results showed that the Pt nanoflowers electrode exhibited excellent catalytic activity towards glucose oxidation in neutral media. Differential pulse voltammograms (DPVs) results showed that at +0.03 V, the sensitivity of the electrode to glucose oxidation was 1.87 μA cm^-2 mM^-1 with a linear range from 1 mM to 16 mM and detection limit of 48 μM (signal-to-noise ratio of 3). In addition, the nonenzymatic glucose sensors exhibited excellent selectivity, stability and repeatability.

Full text of DOI:10.1016/j.electacta.2011.11.114

Electrochimica Acta 63 (2012) 1–8
Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect
Electrochimica Acta
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/electacta
Ultrasonic electrodeposition of platinum nanoflowers and their application in
nonenzymatic glucose sensors
M.Q. Guoa, H.S. Honga, X.N. Tanga, H.D. Fanga, X.H. Xua,b,∗
a School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, PR China
b Tianjin Key Laboratory of Composite and Functional Materials, Tianjin 300072, PR China
a r t i c l e i n f o
a b s t r a c t
Article history:
In the present study, Pt nanoflowers were fabricated on the bare Au electrodes by using template-free
ultrasonic electrodeposition method. Scanning electron microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy,
energy dispersive X-ray detector as well as X-ray diffraction were used for the characterization. It
was found that Pt nanoflowers were composed of metallic Pt. The electrocatalytic properties of the
Pt nanoflowers electrode for glucose oxidation were investigated by cyclic voltammetry and differen-
tial pulse voltammetry. Cyclic voltammograms (CVs) results showed that the Pt nanoflowers electrode
exhibited excellent catalytic activity towards glucose oxidation in neutral media. Differential pulse
voltammograms (DPVs) results showed that at +0.03 V, the sensitivity of the electrode to glucose oxi-
dation was 1.87 ␮A cm−2 mM−1 with a linear range from 1 mM to 16 mM and detection limit of 48 ␮M
(signal-to-noise ratio of 3). In addition, the nonenzymatic glucose sensors exhibited excellent selectivity,
stability and repeatability.
Received 25 September 2011
Received in revised form
30 November 2011
Accepted 30 November 2011
Available online 28 December 2011
Keywords:
Platinum nanoflowers
Ultrasonic electrodeposition
Electrocatalytic activity
Nonenzymatic glucose sensors
© 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
drawbacks of low sensitivity and poor stability caused by sur-
face poisoning from the adsorbed chloride ions and chemisorbed
Diabetes mellitus is a worldwide public health problem. Hence
development of sensing devices with high performance is very
important for the diagnosis and management of diabetes mellitus
[1]. Electrochemical glucose biosensors, especially amperometric
biosensors, have been widely used because of its simple, accurate
and fast analytical process [2]. Good selectivity and high sensitiv-
ity for glucose detection have been achieved by glucose enzymatic
biosensors due to specificity of glucose oxidase [3–5]. However, the
poor stability originated from the nature of the enzymes and the
interference from some electro-oxidizable species remain as prob-
lems for real sensor applications [6,7]. In addition, reproducibility
is still a critical issue in quality control, since the sensitivity of these
glucose sensors essentially depends on the activity of the immobi-
lized enzymes [6].
intermediates originated from glucose oxidation. In addition, such
conventional electrodes often suffer from the interference from
some electroactive species such as ascorbic acid (AA), uric acid
(UA) and acetamidophenol (AAP) under physiological conditions
[11–13].
Efforts have been attempted to overcome these drawbacks
by taking advantage of nanostructured electrocatalysts with high
active surface area, since nanostructured materials not only have
high surface area but also can bring in unique catalytic properties to
the materials [14,15]. Mesoporous Pt [16], highly ordered Pt nan-
otube arrays [17] and macroporous Pt templates [18] have been
developed to enhance the amperometric response of glucose oxi-
dation and lower the interference from the electroactive species.
Bimetallic alloys are also widely used in catalysis and sensing fields
due to their favorable properties in comparison with the corre-
sponding monometallic counterparts such as high catalytic activity,
catalytic selectivity and better resistance to deactivation such as
Pt–Ti, Pt–Bi and Pt–Pb [19–22].
An ideal synthesis method of Pt-based electrocatalysts should
be facile, cost-effective, controllable, reproducible and free of sur-
face contaminants. In recent years, Pt-based alloy nanomaterials
have been fabricated by a variety of strategies, such as hydrother-
mal and solvothermal techniques [23–25], solution–gel (sol–gel)
process [26,27], physical synthesis [28,29], electrodeposition
[14,30–32] and electroless deposition [33]. The hydrothermal and
Direct electrocatalytic oxidation of glucose at a nonenzymatic
electrode would exhibit conveniences and advantages to avoid
the drawbacks of enzymatic sensors [8,9]. Many nonenzymatic
glucose sensors have been explored, especially Pt-based ampero-
metric glucose sensors [10]. However, these electrodes often have
∗
Corresponding author at: School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tianjin
University, No. 72, Weijin Road, Tianjin 300072, PR China. Tel.: +86 22 27406127;
fax: +86 22 27406127.
E-mail address: xhxu tju@eyou.com (X.H. Xu).
0013-4686/$ – see front matter © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.electacta.2011.11.114

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M.Q. Guo et al. / Electrochimica Acta 63 (2012) 1–8
solvothermal methods are easy and surfactant-free to fabricate
Pt and Pt-based nanomaterials. However, these synthetic routes
require elevated temperatures, relatively high loadings of Pt pre-
cursor, or polymeric stabilizers which may have undesired effects
on the catalytic property of nanomaterials. In addition, most syn-
thetic routes need a series of collection and wash steps which may
further complicate the overall process [34,35].
ultrasonically cleaned in double distilled water and finally dried
in air. The electrochemical deposition of Pt nanoflowers was per-
formed in 0.5 M H2SO4 aqueous solution containing 3 mM H2PtCl6
at −0.02 V, −0.2 V and −0.6 V. During potentiostatic deposition,
ultrasonic wave (45 W) irradiation was employed. The obtained Pt
nanoflowers electrode was washed carefully with redistilled water
and then dried at room temperature.
The electrodeposition synthesis has been found to be a poten-
tially superior method over other techniques due to the following
advantages such as (1) single-step process at room temperature and
relatively short process time; (2) effective control of size and shape
of the particles; (3) easy to anchor securely on the substrate. Ultra-
sonic electrodeposition is a modified electrochemical approach,
which takes full advantage of both electrodeposition method and
ultrasonic treatment, and thus this fabrication approach shows
large advantages in well-dispersed nanoparticles [36]. Results of
literature search indicate that no study has been conducted to syn-
thesize Pt nanoflowers by ultrasonic electrodeposition.
Accordingly, in the present study, we presented a one step,
template-free approach for the preparation of Pt nanoflowers by
ultrasonic electrodeposition. The morphology, composition and
electrochemical properties of Pt nanoflowers were investigated
by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray
detector (EDX), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), X-ray
diffraction (XRD), cyclic voltammetry, differential pulse voltamme-
try, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS).
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Morphology, composition and structure analysis
The effect of electrodeposition potential on the morphology of
Pt nanostructures was investigated by FESEM. SEM images of as-
formed Pt nanostructures deposited at −0.02 V, −0.2 V and −0.6 V
for 900 s were shown in Fig. 1. It was observed that distinct pres-
ence of Pt nanoflowers for the samples prepared at −0.2 V, while Pt
nanoparticles were observed for the samples at −0.02 V and −0.6 V.
Fig. 1(A) and (C) revealed that the Pt nanoparticles deposited at
−0.6 V exhibited a higher distribution density and smaller diameter
than those deposited at −0.02 V. Large particles and low distri-
bution density were observed because of inadequate nucleation
sites provided by the lower applied potential (−0.02 V). When the
potential was increased to −0.2 V, high potential provided a suffi-
cient driving force to promote the anisotropic growth of “petal” on
the nanoflowers structure. When further increasing the potential
(−0.6 V), it was deduced the inadequate Pt precursor in the solu-
tion during the later deposition period resulted in the formation of
smaller particles with lower density.
2. Materials and methods
2.1. Reagents
The effect of electrolyte on the morphology was also investi-
gated. From Fig. 1(B) and (D), it was observed that distinct presence
of Pt nanoflowers with an average size of about 960 nm when using
H2SO4(0.5 M)/H2PtCl6(3 mM) as electrolyte. However, Pt nanopar-
ticles were observed when using KCl(0.5 M)/H2PtCl6(3 mM) as a
replacement. According to the formation mechanism proposed by
Du and co-workers [14], it could be deduced that the sulfuric acid
ions in the electrolyte were preferentially absorbed on specific Pt
surface planes, further growth of these specific crystal planes was
inhibited, which resulted in the anisotropic growth of the material.
The kinetics of surface reactions on metals was extremely
dependent on the morphology of the reacting surfaces. Real
systems exhibited complicated shapes with a high degree of irreg-
ularity or disorder. In these cases, fractal geometry was useful to
characterize rough surfaces in very general terms [37]. The fractal
dimension was analyzed by using the box count method, and the
results were shown in Fig. 2. The fractal dimension (Df) could be
obtained from the scaling relationship of Ln(Nr) ∝ Df * Ln(r). From
Fig. 2(A) and (B), Df of the Pt nanoflowers and Pt nanoparticles were
calculated to be 1.737 and 1.703, respectively, which indicated that
the surface of the Pt nanoflowers electrode was rougher than that
of Pt nanoparticles electrode.
The dynamic growing processes of Pt nanoflowers were charac-
terized by time-coursed SEM images (Fig. 3(A)–(D)). It was found
that the quasi-spherical studded particles were initially formed at
the earlier stages (Fig. 3(A)), which acted as the nuclei for sub-
sequently producing Pt nanoflowers. When the deposition time
reached to 300 s, many pricks started to form and extruded from the
surfaces of the studded spherical particles (Fig. 2(B)). Further pro-
longing the growth time to 900 s, the perfect Pt nanoflowers were
formed (Fig. 3(C)). After 900 s (Fig. 3(D)), the petals of Pt nanoflow-
ers changed gradually, and became larger with the deposition time.
The composition and structure of Pt nanoflowers were exam-
ined by EDX, XPS and XRD. The EDX results in Fig. 4(A) showed
that Pt element was exclusively observed. Fig. 4(B) showed the
Pt 4f spectrum of Pt nanoflowers. As observed in Fig. 4(B), the
Chloroplatinic acid (H2PtCl6·6H2O) was purchased from Aldrich.
Glucose was obtained from Kewei Chemical Reagent Co Ltd of
Tianjin University (Tianjin, China). A 0.2 M phosphate buffer solu-
tion (PBS) was prepared using Na2HPO4 and NaH2PO4. All aqueous
solutions were prepared with reagent grade chemicals and double
distilled water.
2.2. Apparatus
All the electrochemical measurements were performed on a
PARSTAT 2263 electrochemical workstation (Princeton, USA). The
electrochemical measurements were carried out with a conven-
tional three-electrode system. A Pt nanoflowers electrode (4 mm
diameter) was used as a working electrode with a platinum elec-
trode (1 mm diameter) as an auxiliary electrode and a saturated
calomel electrode (SCE) as a reference electrode in all cases (an
Au electrode was used as the substrate electrode for the elec-
trodeposition experiment. The electrodeposition set was shown in
Scheme A in Supplementary material). Scanning electron micro-
scope (FE-SEM, Hitachi S-4800), energy-dispersive X-ray analyzer
(EDAX Genesis), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (PHL1600ESCA
XPS) and X-ray diffractometer (XRD, RIGAKU/DMAX) were used
to determine the morphology and composition of the samples.
Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) was measured in
5.0 mM K3[Fe(CN)6]/K4[Fe(CN)6] (1:1) solution supported by 0.1 M
KCl in the frequency range from 10−2 Hz to 105 Hz. Electro-
chemical catalytic behaviors of the electrodes towards glucose
oxidation were characterized by cyclic voltammetry at a scan rate
of 10 mV s−1 with the applied potential from −0.6 V to 0.9 V (versus
SCE). All measurements were conducted at room temperature.
2.3. Preparation of Pt nanflowers
Before electrodeposition, Au electrodes (4 mm diameter) were
polished with 1.0, 0.3 and 0.05 ␮m alumina slurry, and then

M.Q. Guo et al. / Electrochimica Acta 63 (2012) 1–8
3
Fig. 1. SEM images of the samples electrodeposited in H2SO4(0.5 M)/H2PtCl6(3 mM) for 900 s at (A) −0.02 V, (B) −0.2 V, (C) −0.6 V and (D) in KCl(0.5 M)/H2PtCl6(3 mM) for
900 s at −0.2 V.
binding energies of Pt 4f7/2 and 4f5/2 electrons were 71.4 and
74.7 eV, respectively, which were in good agreement with pure bulk
platinum. No XPS signal was associated with oxidized Pt species
(such as Pt2+ and Pt4+). This suggested that Pt nanoflowers were
composed of metallic Pt. The structure of the samples was investi-
gated by XRD. From XRD patterns for the Pt nanoflowers in Fig. 4(C),
the well-defined peaks around 39.76◦, 46.24◦ and 67.45◦ were
attributed to the diffraction peaks of crystal faces Pt (1 1 1), (2 0 0)
and (2 2 0), respectively.
3.2. Electrochemical characterization
The electroactive surface areas of the Pt nanoflowers and Pt
nanoparticles electrode were estimated by the cyclic voltam-
metry method by using K3[Fe(CN)6] as a probe. Fig. 5 showed
CVs of the Pt nanoflowers and Pt nanoparticles electrode in
K3[Fe(CN)6](5 mM)/KCl(1 M) solution and the inset was the
dependence of the peak current on the square root of the scan
rate. From Fig. 5(A) and (B), it was observed that for both Pt
nanoflowers electrode and Pt nanoparticles electrode, the peak
current increased linearly with the square root of the scan rate,
Fig. 2. Analysis of the fractal dimension of (A) Pt nanoflowers and (B) Pt nanoparticles by using the box count method.

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M.Q. Guo et al. / Electrochimica Acta 63 (2012) 1–8
Fig. 3. SEM images of the samples electrodeposited in H2SO4(0.5 M)/H2PtCl6(3 mM) at −0.2 V for (A) 30 s, (B) 300 s, (C) 900 s and (D) 3000 s.
Fig. 4. (A) EDX spectrum of Pt nanoflowers, (B) XPS spectra of the Pt 4f regions for Pt nanoflowers and (C) XRD patterns of Pt nanoflowers.

M.Q. Guo et al. / Electrochimica Acta 63 (2012) 1–8
5
Fig. 5. CVs of the (A) Pt nanoflowers electrode and (B) Pt nanoparticles electrode in 5 mM K3[Fe(CN)6] and 1 M KCl at different scan rates from inner to outer: 10, 30, 50, 70
and 90 mV s−1. Inset of Fig. 5: Peak current as a function of scan rate for the determination of the electroactive surface area.
which indicated a quasi-reversible diffusion controlled process
[38]. Therefore, under the temperature of 25 ◦C, the dependence of
the peak current on the square root of the scan rate was described
by the Randles-Sevcik equation:
strated that the electrodes showed no capacitive characteristics.
The respective semicircle diameter at the high frequency equaled
to the electron transfer resistance (Rct) at the electrode surface.
It was observed that the electron transfer resistance of the Pt
nanoflowers electrode was about 15.06 ꢁ cm2, which was smaller
than 31.08 ꢁ cm2 of the Pt nanoparticles electrode. The results
implied that the Pt nanoflowers electrode was more conductive
to electron transfer than the Pt nanoparticles electrode.
ꢀ
ꢁ
1/2
F3
RT
Ip = 0.4463
n3/2AD10/2C0 ∗ ꢀ1/2
(1)
where n represents the number of electrons participating in
the redox reaction, ꢀ was the scan rate (V s−1), A was the
electroactive area of the electrode (cm2), D0 was the diffu-
sion coefficient the diffusion coefficient of 5 mM K3[Fe(CN)6] in
1 M KCl (7.6 × 10−6 cm2 s−1), C0 was the concentration of the
probe molecule in the bulk solution (mol cm−3), and Ip was the
redox peak current (A) illustrated in Fig. 5. For T = 298 K (25 ◦C):
0.4463(F3/RT)1/2 = 2.687 × 105 (mol V1/2). From this equation, the
electroactive surface areas of the Pt nanoflowers and Pt nanopar-
ticles electrode were calculated to be 0.165 cm2 and 0.139 cm2,
respectively.
EIS was a powerful technique for studying the interface prop-
erties of electrode surfaces [39]. Fig. 6 showed the typical Nyquist
plots of the Pt nanoflowers electrode and Pt nanoparticles elec-
trode. As observed in Fig. 6, for both Pt nanoflowers electrode
and Pt nanoparticles electrode, a squeezed semicircle at high
frequency, which corresponded to the electron transfer limited pro-
cess, followed by a linear part at the low frequency attributable to
diffusion controlled electron transfer process. In the low frequency
region, no vertical increase in impedance on the imaginary part
with decreasing the ac frequency was observed, which demon-
Cyclic voltammetry was used to investigate the catalytic
activities of the as-synthesized electrodes. Fig. S1 in Supplemen-
tary material showed CVs of the Pt nanostructured electrodes
prepared at −0.02 V, −0.2 V and −0.6 V for 900 s in 20 mM glu-
cose supported by 0.2 M neutral PBS. It was observed that the
current response decreased in the order of Pt nanoflowers prepared
at −0.2 V > Pt nanoparticles prepared at −0.02 V > Pt nanoparticles
prepared at −0.6 V, which indicated that the Pt nanoflowers elec-
trode possessed highest catalytic activity.
Fig. 7(A) showed CVs of Pt nanostructured electrodes pre-
pared using (a) 0.5 M H2SO4/3 mM H2PtCl6 solution and (b) 0.5 M
KCl/3 mM H2PtCl6 solution for 900 s in 20 mM glucose supported
by 0.2 M neutral PBS. It was observed that the peak current density
of glucose oxidation on Pt nanoflowers electrode (14.80 ␮A cm−2
)
was about 4.9 times larger than that on Pt nanoparticles electrode
(2.54 ␮A cm−2). The strong response of the Pt nanoflowers elec-
trode was resulted from large electroactive surface areas and small
electron transfer resistance.
Fig. 7(B) showed CVs of the Pt nanoflowers electrode in blank
solution (a), 20 mM glucose with the presence of 0.12 M NaCl (b)
and without the presence of 0.12 M NaCl (c) supported by 0.2 M
neutral PBS. As observed in Fig. 7(B), in the blank PBS solution, CVs
was characterized by well-known hydrogen adsorption/desorption
peaks at negative potentials, a flat double layer region at inter-
mediate potentials, and platinum oxide formation and reduction
peaks at positive potentials. The Pt nanoflowers electrode exhib-
ited strong electrocatalytic activity to the glucose oxidation in the
absence (curve b) and in the presence (curve c) of chloride ions at a
very low potential of +0.03 V, and the peak current in the presence
of chloride ions (curve c) was smaller than that without chloride
ions (curve b). The oxidation of glucose and resulting intermediates
were observed in the positive scan. Whereas in the negative scan,
the oxidation of glucose was suppressed in the high potential range
because of the presence of surface oxide, which was reduced at a
potential of about +0.12 V. With the reduction of surface Pt oxide,
more and more surface-active sites were available for the oxidation
of glucose again, resulting in large and broad anodic peaks in the
potential range from 0.0 to −0.5 mV.
Fig. 6. Nyquist plots of the (a) Pt nanoflowers electrode and (b) Pt nanoparticles
electrode in 5 mM K3[Fe(CN)6]/K4[Fe(CN)6] and 0.1 M KCl solution.

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M.Q. Guo et al. / Electrochimica Acta 63 (2012) 1–8
Fig. 7. (A) CVs of the (a) Pt nanoflowers electrode and (b) Pt nanoparticles electrode in 20 mM glucose supported by 0.2 M neutral PBS. (B) CVs of the Pt nanoflowers electrode
in blank solution (a), 20 mM glucose with the presence of 0.12 M NaCl (b) and 20 mM glucose without the presence of 0.12 M NaCl (c) supported by 0.2 M neutral PBS.
3.3. Amperometric performance of the Pt nanoflowers electrode
to glucose oxidation
The detection limit of the sensor was 48 ␮M based on a signal-
to-noise ratio of 3. Table 1 compared the performance of the
reported enzyme-based glucose biosensors and nonenzyme sen-
sors. As listed in Table 1, the detection limit, linear calibration
range and sensitivity for glucose determination at the Pt nanoflow-
ers electrode were comparable or even better than those obtained
at several electrodes reported recently. An important analytical
parameter for a sensor was its ability to discriminate between
the interfering species commonly present in similar physiologi-
cal environment. The interference from electroactive compounds,
Differential pulse voltammetry was used to determine the
sensor outputs at different glucose concentrations. Fig. 8(A) rep-
resented the calibration curve for the determination of glucose
at the Pt nanoflowers electrode. The measured peak current was
found to be linearly proportional to the concentration of glucose
in the solution in the range of 1–16 mM with a correlation coeffi-
cient of 0.9993, which covered the physiological level of 3–8 mM.
Fig. 8. (A) Calibration curve for the amperometric responses of the Pt nanoflowers electrode to glucose. Inset: the liner fit curve of current vs. concentration. (B) The influence
of electroactive compounds (AA, UA, AAP, ethanol and fructose) on the response of 5.0 mM glucose. (C) Current response of 10 different Pt nanoflowers electrodes to 1.0 mM
glucose in PBS (7.0).

M.Q. Guo et al. / Electrochimica Acta 63 (2012) 1–8
7
Table 1
Analytical parameters obtained at different glucose sensors.
Electrode materials
Sensitivity
Linear range
Detection limit
Activity (Cl−
)
Pt nanotubules [17]
Nanoporous Pt [40]
Mesoporous Pt [16]
Pt2Pb [41]
0.1 ␮A mM−1 cm−2
2–14 mM
1–10 mM
1 ␮M
Not applicable
Not applicable
SCRa
Not applicable
Not applicable
Not applicable
Not applicable
Not applicable
Not applicable
1.65 ␮A mM−1 cm−2
Not applicable
Not applicable
Not applicable
8 ␮M
1 nM
6 ␮M
9.6 ␮A cm−2 mM−1 (+0.4 V)
Not applicable
Up to 10 mM
Up to 15 mM
Up to 11 mM
5 nM–0.5 ␮M
0–6 mM
PtPb nanowires [20]
11.25 ␮A cm−2 mM−1 (−0.2 V)
0.00187 ␮A nM−1 (0 V)
1.06 ␮A mM (+0.3 V)
Au@Pd–ILsb–Au@Pd/GCEc [42]
SWCNHsd/GCEc [43]
PtPbNPe/MWCNf/Ta [44]
Monodispersed Ni/Al layered
Double hydroxide and chitosan [45]
Nafion/OMCsg modified GEh [46]
iPS–PANI–Au–GOD [47]
jGOx–AuNPs/ESM [48]
This work
18 ␮A mM−1 cm−2 (−0.15 V)
1–5 mM
Up to 10 mM
8 ␮M
10 ␮M
0.182 ␮A mM−1 (+0.9 V)
0.053 ␮A mM−1
Not applicable
0.5–15 mM
156.52 ␮M
12 ␮M
3.5 ␮M
48 ␮M
Not applicable
Not applicable
Not applicable
SCRf
0.04–2.04 mM
8.33 ␮M–0.966 mM
1–16 mM
Not applicable
1.87 ␮A cm−2 mM−1 (0.23 ␮A mM−1) (+0.03 V)
a
Strong current response.
Ionic liquids.
Glassy carbon electrodes.
Singlewalled carbon nanotubes.
Nanoparticles.
Multiwalled carbon nanotubes.
Ordered mesoporous carbons.
Graphite electrode.
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
i
Polystyrene–polyaniline–Au–glucose oxidase nanocomposite.
Glucose oxidase–gold nanoparticles/eggshell membrane.
j
such as ascorbic acid (0.1 mM, AA), uric acid (UA, 0.1 mM), acetami-
dophenol (AAP, 0.1 mM) and fructose (0.3 mM), which commonly
present in physiological samples, was investigated. In addition,
the influence of ethanol (0.5 mM) on the response of 5.0 mM glu-
cose was also investigated. From Fig. 8(B), it was observed that
the response signals of AA, UA, fructose, ethanol and AAP were
negligible for glucose determination. The good selectivity of the
nonenzymatic sensor was related to the proper working potential
used.
The reproducibility and stability of the nonenzymatic glucose
sensor were evaluated via the comparison of the currents of dif-
ferent electrodes. The amperometric response of 10 different Pt
nanoflowers electrodes to 1.0 mM glucose was tested indepen-
dently. As shown in Fig. 8(C), the relative standard deviation
(RSD) of the current response of the Pt nanoflowers electrode
to 1 mM was 1.4% for 10 successive measurements. A repro-
ducible current response with a RSD of 3.0% was observed for
30 successive assays of 1.0 mM glucose. The long-term stabil-
ity was explored by measuring a glucose solution intermittently,
and the electrode was stored at 4 ◦C by immersing in PBS
(0.2 M, pH 7.0). The results showed that the catalytic cur-
rent maintained more than 90% of its initial value after 30
days, indicating the good stability of the nonenzymatic glucose
sensor.
Acknowledgement
The authors gratefully acknowledge the support for this work
from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant
51143009).
Appendix A. Supplementary data
Supplementary data associated with this article can be found, in
the online version, at doi:10.1016/j.electacta.2011.11.114.
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