A sensitive glucose biosensor based on Ag@C core-shell matrix.

Nano-Ag particles were coated with colloidal carbon (Ag@C) to improve its biocompatibility and chemical stability for the preparation of biosensor. The core-shell structure was evidenced by transmission electron microscope (TEM) and the Fourier transfer infrared (FTIR) spectra revealed that the carbon shell is rich of function groups such as -OH and -COOH. The as-prepared Ag@C core-shell structure can offer favorable microenvironment for immobilizing glucose oxidase and the direct electrochemistry process of glucose oxidase (GOD) at Ag@C modified glassy carbon electrode (GCE) was realized. The modified electrode exhibited good response to glucose. Under optimum experimental conditions the biosensor linearly responded to glucose concentration in the range of 0.05-2.5mM, with a detection limit of 0.02mM (S/N=3). The apparent Michaelis-Menten constant (KM(app)) of the biosensor is calculated to be 1.7mM, suggesting high enzymatic activity and affinity toward glucose. In addition, the GOD-Ag@C/Nafion/GCE shows good reproducibility and long-term stability. These results suggested that core-shell structured Ag@C is an ideal matrix for the immobilization of the redox enzymes and further the construction of the sensitive enzyme biosensor.

Amino-functionalized mesoporous silica modified glassy carbon electrode for ultra-trace copper(II) determination.

This paper described a facile and direct electrochemical method for the determination of ultra-trace Cu(2+) by employing amino-functionalized mesoporous silica (NH2-MCM-41) as enhanced sensing platform. NH2-MCM-41 was prepared by using a post-grafting process and characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. NH2-MCM-41 modified glassy carbon (GC) electrode showed higher sensitivity for anodic stripping voltammetric (ASV) detection of Cu(2+) than that of MCM-41 modified one. The high sensitivity was attributed to synergistic effect between MCM-41 and amino-group, in which the high surface area and special mesoporous morphology of MCM-41 can cause strong physical absorption, and amino-groups are able to chelate copper ions. Some important parameters influencing the sensor response were optimized. Under optimum experimental conditions the sensor linearly responded to Cu(2+) concentration in the range from 5 to 1000 ng L(-1) with a detection limit of 0.9 ng L(-1) (S/N=3). Moreover, the sensor possessed good stability and electrode renewability. In the end, the proposed sensor was applied for determining Cu(2+) in real samples and the accuracy of the results were comparable to those obtained by inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES) method.