Electrochemical sensing of glucose by carbon cloth-supported Co3O4/PbO2 core-shell nanorod arrays

• The carbon cloth-supported Co3O4/PbO2 core-shell nanorod arrays were firstly fabricated.
• The carbon cloth-supported Co3O4/PbO2 nanorod array electrode was directly used as the flexible glucose sensor.
• The flexible glucose sensor displayed low detection limit and high sensitivity for the detection of glucose.
• The sensing performance of this type of flexible glucose sensors were evaluated by measuring human serum samples.

A novel electrochemical sensor for the detection of glucose was constructed based on the use of Co3O4/PbO2 core-shell nanorod arrays as electrocatalysts. In this paper the Co3O4/PbO2 core-shell nanorod arrays grow directly on a flexible carbon cloth substrate by the combination of hydrothermal synthesis and electrochemical deposition methods. The as-prepared hierarchical nanocomposites show the structural characteristics of nanowire core and nanoparticle shell. The carbon cloth-supported Co3O4/PbO2 nanorod array electrode exhibits higher sensitivity (460.3 μA mM−1 cm−2 in the range from 5 μM to 1.2 mM) and lower detection limit (0.31 μM (S/N=3)) than the carbon cloth-supported Co3O4 nanowire array electrode. Both the three-dimensional network of carbon cloth substrate and the hierarchical nanostructure of binary Co3O4/PbO2 composites make such an electrode have high electrocatalytic activity towards the glucose oxidation. Due to the excellent sensitivity, repeatability and anti-interference ability, the carbon cloth-supported Co3O4/PbO2 nanorod arrays will be the promising materials for fabricating practical non-enzymatic glucose sensors.

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