Preparation and characterization of three dimensional graphene foam supported platinum–ruthenium bimetallic nanocatalysts for hydrogen peroxide based electrochemical biosensors

• PtRu bimetallic nanoparticles with 3D graphene foam nanocatalyst were used for H2O2 detection.
• 3D graphene foam was used as the scaffold for the deposition of PtRu bimetallic nanoparticles.
• PtRu/3D graphene foam nanocatalyst showed excellent electrochemical performance among four samples, namely PtRu/graphene, PtRu/C, and PtRu.
• PtRu/3D graphene foam nanocatalyst exhibited fast response, high sensitivity and high detection limit for H2O2 detection applicable for biosensing.

The large surface, the excellent dispersion and the high degrees of sensitivity of bimetallic nanocatalysts were the attractive features of this investigation. Graphene foam (GF) was a three dimensional (3D) porous architecture consisting of extremely large surface and high conductive pathways. In this study, 3D GF was used incorporating platinum–ruthenium (PtRu) bimetallic nanoparticles as an electrochemical nanocatalyst for the detection of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2). PtRu/3D GF nanocatalyst exhibited a remarkable performance toward electrochemical oxidation of H2O2 without any additional mediator showing a high sensitivity (1023.1 µA mM−1 cm−2) and a low detection limit (0.04 µM) for H2O2. Amperometric results demonstrated that GF provided a promising platform for the development of electrochemical sensors in biosensing and PtRu/3D GF nanocatalyst possessed the excellent catalytic activity toward the H2O2 detection. A small particle size and a high degree of the dispersion in obtaining of large active surface area were important for the nanocatalyst for the best H2O2 detection in biosensing. Moreover, potential interference by ascorbic acid and uric acid appeared to be negligible.