Nonenzymatic glucose sensing by CuO nanoparticles decorated nitrogen-doped graphene aerogel

CuO nanoparticles decorated N-doped graphene aerogel (NGA-CuO) was facilely synthesized via a mild hydrothermal method followed by freeze-drying and calcination, which was characterized by TEM, FT-IR, XPS, XRD and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). The obtained NGA-CuO was used for the construction of a nonenzymatic sensing platform for glucose, exhibiting wide linear range, low detection limit, high sensitivity, reproducibility, selectivity and stability. The excellent analytical performances of the NGA-CuO based glucose sensor might be attributed to the synergistic effect of CuO nanoparticles and N-doped graphene aerogel (NGA). The practical applications of the proposed sensor was verified by determining glucose concentrations in five human serum samples, and the obtained results were quite comparable to those measured on the standard clinical instrument.