Amperometric glucose sensor based on catalytic reduction of dissolved oxygen at soluble carbon nanofiber

This work shows excellent catalytic activity of soluble carbon nanofiber (CNF), which was obtained with a simple nitric acid treatment, toward the electroreduction of dissolved oxygen at a low operating potential. Thus the CNF was applied in the construction of amperometric biosensors for oxidase substrates using glucose oxidase as a model. The good dispersion of CNF led to convenient preparation and acceptable repeatability of the proposed sensors. UV–vis spectra, Fourier transform infrared spectra, X-ray photoelectron spectra and titration curves demonstrated that the good dispersion resulted from the large numbers of surface oxygen-rich groups produced in the treatment process. The membrane of CNF showed good stability and provided fast response to dissolved oxygen with a linear range from 0.1 to 78 μM and detection limit of 0.07 μM. The proposed glucose biosensor could monitor glucose ranging from 10 to 350 μM with detection limit of 2.5 μM and sensitivity of 36.3 nA cm−2 μM−1. The coefficients of variation for intra-assay were 4.7 and 3.2% at glucose concentrations of 20 and 210 μM, respectively. The use of a low operating potential (−0.3 V) and Nafion membrane produced good selectivity toward the glucose detection. CNF-based biosensors would provide wide range of bioelectrochemical applications in different fields.