Synthesis of Cu–CdIn2O4 nanoparticles decorated on nickel foam as a sensitive non-enzymatic electrochemical sensor for glucose detection

Fast and effective detection of glucose has important significance in clinical medicine and the diagnosis of diabetes. Electrochemical non-enzymatic glucose sensor has received extensive attention to detect glucose in the recent years due to its simple operation and low cost. In this paper, Cu–CdIn2O4 nanoparticles decorated on nickel foam electrode as a sensitive non-enzymatic electrochemical sensor for glucose detection are synthesized by a one-step non-aqueous sol–gel method. Different Cu-doping levels are designed as performance comparison analysis. The electrocatalytic performance of the Cu–CdIn2O4 nanoparticles/Ni foam electrodes towards glucose oxidation is evaluated by cyclic voltammetry and current time. The results show that 15% Cu–CdIn2O4/Ni foam electrode shows higher sensitivity, as well as an excellent anti-interference and long-term stability towards glucose detection compared with 10% and 20% Cu–CdIn2O4/Ni foam electrodes. Hence, 15% Cu–CdIn2O4/Ni foam can be regarded as an efficient and a promising sensing material for glucose detection. Such satisfactory performance is not only attributed to the synergistic effect of Cd, In, and Cu, but also benefits from the uniform distribution of 15% Cu–CdIn2O4 nanoparticles on the Ni foam, which provides more reactive sites for the electrochemical catalytic reaction.