Electrochemical behavior of cuprous oxide–reduced graphene oxide nanocomposites and their application in nonenzymatic hydrogen peroxide sensing

In this paper, three approaches including physical adsorption, in situ reduction, and one pot synthesis were developed to fabricate cuprous oxide–reduced graphene oxide (Cu2O–rGO) nanocomposites. These nanocomposites were characterized by XRD, SEM, Raman spectrum and electrochemical methods. The composite with different morphologies and components fabricated from these three methods displayed much enhanced performance for the catalytic reduction of H2O2 than the single component Cu2O. Among these Cu2O–rGO nanocomposites, the product prepared through the simple physical adsorption approach (i.e. Cu2O–rGOpa) showed a slightly better performance than the other two composites. A wider linear range (0.03–12.8 mM), higher sensitivity (19.5 μA/mM) and better stability were achieved on the Cu2O–rGOpa based sensor than Cu2O based sensor for accurate detection of H2O2.