Electrochemical sensing of glucose based on novel hedgehog-like NiO nanostructures

The present study reports the synthesis of novel hedgehog-like NiO nanostructures via hydrothermal method using L-cysteine as a structure directing agent. The as-synthesized hedgehog-like NiO nanostructures were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray photoelectron microscopy (XPS) X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) techniques for morphological, compositional and structural studies respectively. The prepared NiO nanostructures were applied for the design and engineering of non-enzymatic glucose sensor in the alkaline medium. The electrode material for glucose sensing based on the hedgehog-like NiO nanostructures demonstrated extremely high electrochemical response with high sensitivity (1052.8 mu A mM(-1) cm(-2)), low detection limit (LOD) (1.2 mu M), high selectivity, wide linear range (0.1-5.0 mu M) (R-2 = 0.9982) and the outstanding reproducibility. A plausible growth mechanism has been proposed to explain the formation process of the hedgehog-like NiO nanostructures. The excellent sensing performance can be attributed to the unique surface architectures, which enhanced the electron transfer rate and the molecular approach during the electrochemical sensing of glucose. Furthermore, the sensor showed excellent performance for the quantification of glucose in real blood sera reflecting universal nature of the presented glucose sensor. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.