Bioelectrocatalysis and surface analysis of gold coated with nickel oxide/hydroxide and glucose oxidase towards detection of glucose

The fabricating of metal oxide thin films onto conducting surfaces continues to grow and their potential applications as surfaces for biosensor applications is of paramount importance. The correct orientation of glucose oxidase redox enzymes yields very important biointerfaces capable of selectively detecting d-glucose as a measure of blood sugar for healthy and diabetic sick patients. The electrodeposition of redox enzymes, such as glucose oxidase enzymes, onto gold electrode surfaces pre-modified with nickel oxide was investigated in this work. The surface characterization confirmed the chemical nature, morphology and thin film composition of the modification of bare and modified gold electrodes. The electrodeposition of GOx enzyme onto nickel oxide/hydroxide thin film resulted in a surface with excellent bioelectrocatalytic properties towards the detection of d-glucose. The nickel within the nickel oxide/hydroxide thin film had a Ni(II) oxidation state. A well-defined redox peak of GOx enzyme co-factor (FAD/FADH2) was observed confirming the oriented immobilization onto NiO/Ni(OH)2 conducting surfaces. The amount of GOx enzyme deposited was determined by integrating the charge (Q = 0.368 μF) under the reduction peak and the surface coverage was found to be 1.43 × 10−10 mol. cm−2. A linear plot of electrocatalytic reduction currents against d-glucose concentrations was obtained up to 30.0 mM with a linear correlation coefficient (R2) of 0.99. The limit of detection (LoD) using S/N = 3 was calculated to be 1.54 ± 0.03 mM. The sensitivity of the biosensors was 1.95 ± 0.13 μA.mM.cm−2. The selectivity towards only d-glucose and not ascorbic acid and uric acid was evaluated and the Au-NiO/Ni(OH)2-GOx could not detect 1.0 mM of ascorbic acid and uric acid.