Novel structured carbon nanotubes fiber based microelectrodes for efficient electrochemical water splitting and glucose sensing

An efficient electrocatalyst composed of nickel and cobalt selenide over unique structure carbon nanotubes (NiCo-Se@CNTs) fiber has been fabricated via a single-step hydrothermal method which showed efficient electrocatalytic performance towards electrochemical non-enzymatic glucose sensing and overall water splitting applications. The structural and elemental composition of a modified electrode (NiCo-Se@CNTs) was ascertained via transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-rays diffraction (XRD) pattern, X-rays photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) along with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) techniques. Modified fiber-based electrode was used for the electrochemical water splitting which showed a low overpotential value (η10 = 260 mV) with a corresponding Tafel slope of 138 mV dec−1. These values are far superior in contrast with pristine CNTs fiber, having 384 mV overpotential and 318 mV dec−1 of Tafel slope. In extension, while studying overall water splitting by engaging both modified CNTs fiber as anode and cathode, it exhibited excellent performance with an overpotential (η10) of 297 mV and corresponding Tafel slop of 159 mV dec−1. The fabricated electrode was further investigated for electrochemical glucose sensing which exhibited excellent performance towards the glucose detection with a linear dynamic range of up to 10 mM, a detection limit of 0.59 μM in an alkaline condition (pH=13) and high sensitivity of 813 mAmM−1cm−2. The outcomes demonstrated that fabricated fiber (NiCo-Se@CNTs) might be a promising material in future as a multifunctional electrocatalyst for flexible and wearable energy and sensing related applications.