Laser-induced atmospheric CuO formation on copper surface with enhanced electrochemical performance for non-enzymatic glucose sensing

• Published in: Journal of materials chemistry. C, Materials for optical and electronic devices Materials for optical and electronic devices, 2021-11, Vol.9 (42), p.14997-151
• Main Authors: Sedaghat, Sotoudeh, Nejati, Sina, Bermejo, Luis Helena, He, Zihao, Alcaraz, Alejandro M, Roth, Alexander, Li, Zheng, Pol, Vilas G, Wang, Haiyan, Rahimi, Rahim
• Format: Article
• ISSN: 2050-7526; 2050-7534
• DOI: 10.1039/d1tc01289d

Copper oxide nanostructures are widely used for various applications due to their unique optical and electrical properties. In this work, we demonstrate an atmospheric laser-induced oxidation technique for the fabrication of highly electrochemically active copper oxide hierarchical micro/nano structures on copper surfaces to achieve highly sensitive non-enzymatic glucose sensing performance. The effect of laser processing power on the composition, crystallinity, microstructure, wettability, and color of the laser-induced oxide on copper (LIO-Cu) surface was systematically studied using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), grazing incidence X-ray diffraction (GI-XRD), Raman spectroscopy, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), EDX-mapping, water contact angle measurements, and optical microscopy. Results of these investigations showed a remarkable increase in copper oxide composition by increasing the laser processing power. The pore size distribution and surface area of the pristine and LIO-Cu sample estimated by N 2 adsorption-desorption data showed a developed mesoporous LIO-Cu structure. The size of the generated nano-oxides, crystallinity, and electroactivity of the LIO-Cu were observed to be adjustable by the laser processing power. The electrocatalytic activity of LIO-Cu surfaces was studied by means of cyclic voltammetry (CV) within a potential window of −0.8 to +0.8 V and chronoamperometry in an applied optimized potential of +0.6 V, in 0.1 M NaOH solution and phosphate buffer solution (PBS), respectively. LIO-Cu surfaces with optimized laser processing powers exhibited a sensitivity of 6950 μA mM −1 cm −2 within a wide linear range from 0.01 to 5 mM, with exceptional specificity and response time (