Core-shell TiC/C nanofiber arrays decorated with copper nanoparticles for high performance non-enzymatic glucose sensing

A high-performance non-enzymatic glucose sensing platform based on TiC/C nanofiber arrays decorated with Cu nanoparticles (Cu@TiC/C) is described. Copper nanoparticles with a size of 30-50 nm are uniformly distributed on the surface of the core-shell of TiC/C nanofibers which are produced on a Ti alloy substrate in situ and enable glucose detection in solution. The Cu@TiC/C electrode displays two linear ranges: one range from 1.0 mu M to 1.7 mM with a correlation coefficient of 0.997 and a sensitivity of 415.02 mu A cm(-2) mM(-1), another range from 1.7 mM to 5.2 mM with a correlation coefficient of 0.997 and a sensitivity of 260.05 mu A cm(-2) mM(-1). The sensor also offers favorable reproducibility, stability and potential applications for real sample analysis while suffering from minimal interferences and is thus promising in clinical applications. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.