Facile synthesis of uniform CuO/Cu2O composite hollow microspheres for a non-enzymatic glucose sensor

CuO/Cu(2)Ocomposite hollow microspheres (HMs) were fabricated by a convenient and self-templated hydrothermal method with Cu(OAc)(2) as precursor, and used as a non-enzymatic glucose sensor. The CuO/Cu2O HMs exhibited a wide detection range (from 10 mu M to 3mM), low detection limit (0.04 mu M) and high sensitivity (1762 mu AmM-1 cm(-2)) which is superior to existing copper oxide. The excellent electrocatalytic activity was due to the high surface area, porosity and Cu2+/Cu+ redox couples. Moreover, the sensor shows high anti-interference ability, good reproducibility and stability which make it well reliable for determination of glucose in practical samples. This simple fabrication method will arouse interests in constructing other excellent-performance bi-component metal oxides for practical glucose sensing.