Instant Facile Method for the In Situ Growth of Ni(OH)2 Nanohives on Nickel Foam for Non-Enzymatic Electrochemical Glucose Sensor

Abstract

Glucose sensor has attracted the attention of academic and industrial researchers because of its broad applications in diabetes management, food quality control, and bioprocess inspection. Compared with enzymatic glucose sensors, non-enzymatic glucose sensors are more relevant because of their stable, sensitive, and low-cost process. The simple and low-cost synthesis of advanced nanomaterials for a non-enzymatic glucose sensor is vital in practical applications. Here, we introduce a facile chemical method for the direct synthesis of nickel(II) hydroxide nanostructures on porous nickel foam (NF) for an electrochemical glucose sensor. The properties of the synthesized material were characterized by field-emission scanning electron microscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, selected area electron diffraction, and Raman spectroscopy. The fabricated materials were applied for glucose concentration measurement in 0.1 M NaOH by cyclic voltammetry and chronoamperometry. The Ni(OH)2/NF sensor is stable and has excellent sensitivity (12.55 mA mM−1 cm−2) with a low detection limit of 57 μM (S/N = 3) and high selectivity for glucose detection in the presence of common interfering species. The Ni(OH)2/Ni electrode was successfully tested in measuring glucose concentration in real serum samples. The fabricated Ni(OH)2/NF electrode can be used as a low-cost, sensitive, stable and selective platform for non-enzymatic glucose sensors.