Ni-Co/Fe₃O₄flower-like nanocomposite for the highly sensitive and selective enzyme free glucose sensor applications

The electrochemically active non-enzymatic glucose sensor probes on the basis of nickel-cobalt (Ni-Co)/iron oxide (Fe₃O₄) nanocomposite was developed by using a simple chemical phase technique. The morphological characterizations revealed that Ni-Co and its composite with Fe₃O₄exhibited the flower-like morphology with the strongly interlaced nanosheets. The electrocatalytic performances of as-prepared nanostructures toward glucose oxidation were investigated by using cyclic voltammetry and amperometric techniques. Ni-Co/Fe₃O₄nanocomposite exhibited a fast response toward non-enzymatic glucose detection and the obtained amperometric signals are linearly proportional to the glucose concentration ranging from 1 μM to 11 mM, showing a low detection limit of 0.19 μM and a high sensitivity of 2171 μA/mM.cm². The as-fabricated sensor demonstrated the real time applications in human serum samples with the appreciable recovery and also exhibited the excellent performances in terms of selectivity, reliability, good accuracy and reproducibility, which geared up the potential exploration of as-prepared catalysts in highly sensitive and selective enzyme free glucose sensor applications.