Bifunctional sensor of nitric oxide and oxygen based on hematite nanotubes embedded in chitosan matrix

A novel hybrid bifunctional sensing platform for simultaneous determination of NO and O2 has been developed, whereby hematite nanotubes are immobilized into the chitosan matrix onto a gold electrode (labeled as HeNTs-Chi/Au). The HeNTs distributed in porous-structured chitosan matrix not only offer abundant active sites for bifunctional sensing of NO and O2, but also facilitate oxidation of NO and reduction of O2 dramatically. Straight calibration curves are achieved in analyte concentration ranges of 5.0 × 10−8 to 1.25 × 10−6 mol L−1 for NO and 2.5 × 10−7 to 6.0 × 10−6 mol L−1 for O2. Also, the detection limits are low of 8.0 × 10−9 mol L−1 for NO and 5.0 × 10−8 mol L−1 for O2. Such an efficient bifunctional sensor for NO and O2 offers great potential in quantitation of NO levels in biological and medical systems, since NO level is highly regulated by various reactive oxygen species.