Electrochemical synthesis of reduced graphene sheet-AuPd alloy nanoparticle composites for enzymatic biosensing

A simple, fast, green and controllable approach was developed for electrochemical synthesis of a novel nanocomposite of electrochemically reduced graphene oxide (ERGO) and gold-palladium (1:1) bimetallic nanoparticles (AuPdNPs), without the aid of any reducing reagent. The electrochemical reduction efficiently removed oxygen-containing groups in ERGO, which was then modified with homogeneously dispersed AuPdNPs in a good size distribution. ERGO-AuPdNPs nanocomposite showed excellent biocompatibility, enhanced electron transfer kinetics and large electroactive surface area, and were highly sensitive and stable towards oxygen reduction. A biosensor was constructed by immobilizing glucose oxidase as a model enzyme on the nanocomposites for glucose detection through oxygen consumption during the enzymatic reaction. The biosensor had a detection limit of 6.9 μM, a linear range up to 3.5 mM and a sensitivity of 266.6 μA mM−1 cm−2. It exhibited acceptable reproducibility and good accuracy with negligible interferences from common oxidizable interfering species. These characteristics make ERGO-AuPdNPs nanocomposite highly suitable for oxidase-based biosensing.