Highly stable and sensitive glucose biosensor based on covalently assembled high density Au nanostructures

We describe the development of a highly stable and sensitive glucose biosensor based on the nanohybrid materials derived from gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) and multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT). The biosensing platform was developed by using layer-by-layer (LBL) self-assembly of the nanohybrid materials and the enzyme glucose oxidase (GOx). A high density of AuNPs and MWCNT nanocomposite materials were constructed by alternate self assembly of thiol functionalized MWCNTs and AuNPs, followed by chemisoption of GOx. The surface morphology of multilayered AuNPs/MWCNT structure was characterized by field emission-scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM), and the surface coverage of AuNPs was investigated by cyclic voltammetry (CV), showing that 5 layers of assembly achieves the maximum particle density on electrode. The immobilization of GOx was monitored by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). CV and amperometry methods were used to study the electrochemical oxidation of glucose at physiological pH 7.4. The Au electrode modified with five layers of AuNPs/MWCNT composites and GOx exhibited an excellent electrocatalytic activity towards oxidation of glucose, which presents a wide liner range from 20 μM to 10 mM, with a sensitivity of 19.27 μA mM−1 cm−2. The detection limit of present modified electrode was found to be 2.3 μM (S/N = 3). In addition, the resulting biosensor showed a faster amperometric current response (within 3 s) and low apparent Michaelis–Menten constant (Kmapp). Our present study shows that the high density of AuNPs decorated MWCNT is a promising nanohybrid material for the construction of enzyme based electrochemical biosensors.