Highly Sensitive Electrochemical Non-Enzymatic Uric Acid Sensor Based on Cobalt Oxide Puffy Balls-like Nanostructure

Early-stage uric acid (UA) abnormality detection is crucial for a healthy human. With the evolution of nanoscience, metal oxide nanostructure-based sensors have become a potential candidate for health monitoring due to their low-cost, easy-to-handle, and portability. Herein, we demonstrate the synthesis of puffy balls-like cobalt oxide nanostructure using a hydrothermal method and utilize them to modify the working electrode for non-enzymatic electrochemical sensor fabrication. The non-enzymatic electrochemical sensor was utilized for UA determination using cyclic voltammetry (CV) and differential pulse voltammetry (DPV). The puffy balls-shaped cobalt oxide nanostructure-modified glassy carbon (GC) electrode exhibited excellent electro-catalytic activity during UA detection. Interestingly, when we compared the sensitivity of non-enzymatic electrochemical UA sensors, the DPV technique resulted in high sensitivity (2158 mu A/mM.cm(2)) compared to the CV technique (sensitivity = 307 mu A/mM.cm(2)). The developed non-enzymatic electrochemical UA sensor showed good selectivity, stability, reproducibility, and applicability in the human serum. Moreover, this study indicates that the puffy balls-shaped cobalt oxide nanostructure can be utilized as electrode material for designing (bio)sensors to detect a specific analyte.

Automated summary

In this study, puffy balls-like cobalt oxide nanostructure was synthesized through a hydrothermal method and used for the fabrication of a non-enzymatic electrochemical sensor. The cobalt oxide nanostructure-modified electrode exhibited excellent electro-catalytic activity during the detection of uric acid. Additionally, the differential pulse voltammetry technique showed higher sensitivity compared to cyclic voltammetry for the non-enzymatic electrochemical uric acid sensor.