Ag nanoparticles coated NiO nanowires hierarchical nanocomposites electrode for nonenzymatic glucose biosensing

Systemically amount-controlled Ag nanoparticles (NPs) coated NiO nanowires (NWs, diameter similar to 130 nm) were fabricated by using a facile electrospinning technique together with seed-mediated growth procedure. They were characterized by SEM, TEM, XRD, and EDX techniques, which showed that Ag NPs were successfully coated on the NiO NWs. The biosensing properties toward glucose of the Ag coated NiO NWs based on glassy carbon electrode (GCE) were carefully studied and the results indicated that the biosensing properties of NiO nanowires were significantly improved by the coating of Ag NPs, including considerably improved sensitivity and shortened response dynamics. 5% Ag coated NWs glucose sensor is the optimum one which demonstrated a similar to 6 times shortened response time while an enhanced sensitivity of similar to 3 times compared to naked NiO NWs. In addition, it also has an excellent anti-interference property and a good stability. The main reason of the enhanced glucose biosensing properties was attributed to the "synergistic effect" between the Ag NPs and NiO NWs. Overall, the Ag coated NiO NWs through electrospinning is a good candidate for fast biosensor to effectively detect glucose. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.