Ternary Pd-Ni-P nanoparticle-based nonenzymatic glucose sensor with greatly enhanced sensitivity achieved through active-site engineering

We develop a unique ternary Pd-Ni-P nanocatalyst for the sensitive enzyme-free electrooxidation detection of glucose under alkaline conditions. By reducing the distance between the Pd and Ni active sites in the Pd-Ni-P nanoparticles (NPs) via atom engineering, the catalyst structure is transformed from Pd@Ni-P dumbbells into spherical NPs, greatly enhancing the catalyst sensitivity. The glassy carbon electrode modified with Pd-Ni-P ternary NPs, which behaves as an efficient nonenzymatic glucose sensor, offers excellent electrocatalytic performance with a high sensitivity of 1,136 mu A.mM(-1).cm(-2), a short response time of 2 s, a wide linear range of 0.5 mu M to 10.24 mM, a low limit of detection of 0.15 mu M (signal-to-noise ratio = 3), and good selectivity and reproducibility. Moreover, owing to its superior catalytic performance, the Pd-Ni-P modified electrode has excellent reliability for glucose detection in real samples of human serum. Our study provides a promising alternative strategy for designing and constructing high-performance multicomponent nanocatalyst-based sensors.