Noninvasive detection of glucose using electrodeposited NiCo nanoparticles on a silk derived carbon

Abstract

As the incidence of diabetes continues to rise globally, the development of efficient and convenient glucose monitoring techniques has become particularly critical. A non-invasive method avoiding collecting blood greatly relieves the pain and infection for diabetes. The bimetallic decorated silk derived carbon was immobilized on the glassy carbon electrode by coating and electrodeposition processes to fabricate a highly sensitive glucose sensor. As a natural fiber, the intrinsic heteroatoms such as nitrogen and oxygen are useful for preparation of carbons with high conductivity. Meanwhile, silk carbon material, as a green biomass material with high biocompatibility and environment friendly, meets the requirements of sustainable development and safety in biomedical applications. Using a homogeneous bimetallic electrodeposited solution containing a mixture of nickel chloride (NiCl₂) and cobalt chloride (CoCl₂), a self-assembled layer-by-layer non-enzymatic glucose sensor was fabricated. The combination of silk derived carbon and NiCo nanoparticles can form a strong synergistic effect, which significantly improves the electrochemical reaction efficiency, making it a superior application prospect in glucose detection. The prepared sensor exhibits high sensitivity (853.1535 μA·mM^-1·cm^-2), wide linear range (0.001 mM - 16 mM) and low detection limit (0.175 μM) with excellent selectivity and stability. What’s more, it can be used to detect the glucose level in saliva without any pretreatment of the sample.