Platelet graphite nanofibers/soft polymer composites for electrochemical sensing and biosensing

The fabrication and attractive sensing and biosensing performance of platelet graphite nanofibers/polysulfone (PGNF/PSf) composite nanomaterials is described. The PGNF/PSf nanocomposites were fabricated by facile phase-inversion method. Their electrochemical performance was compared to the one of carbon nanotubes/PSf and graphite microparticles/PSf composite. It was clearly demonstrated that PGNF/PSf provides superior voltammetric and amperometric performance for sensing and biosensing over those two other sp(2) carbon materials. This can be attributed to the unparallel amount of electroactive edge sites on PGNF in which electroactivity is not impaired by the polysulfone binder. PGNF/PSf/glucose oxidase nanobiocomposite was prepared and used for proof-of-concept biosensing of glucose. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.