Facile synthesis of CuO–Co₃O₄ prickly-sphere-like composite for non-enzymatic glucose sensors

In the field of glucose sensors, the development of inexpensive and high-efficiency electrochemical glucose sensors is the current research hotspot. In this paper, CuO–Co₃O₄ composite with a prickly-sphere-like morphology is prepared by the facile hydrothermal method for the non-enzymatic electrochemical glucose detection. X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy are used to analyze the structure, composition, and morphology of the material. In addition, the electrochemical catalytic performance of CuO–Co₃O₄ to glucose is obtained by cyclic voltammetry and chronoamperometry. The excellent electrochemical sensing performance may be attributed to the large number of catalytic sites in the prickly-sphere-like composite and the synergistic effect of Cu and Co. Under an applied voltage of 0.55 V, CuO–Co₃O₄ composite shows sensitivity to glucose (1503.45 μA·(mmol·L⁻¹)⁻¹·cm⁻²), a low detection limit (21.95 μmol·L⁻¹), excellent selectivity, a high level of reproducibility, and good stability. This indicates that the CuO–Co₃O₄ composite has a broad prospect of non-enzymatic glucose sensing application.