Monodisperse copper selenide nanoparticles for ultrasensitive and selective non-enzymatic glucose biosensor

The design of sensitive and fast-response of catalysts are very important for non-enzymatic glucose biosensors. In this work, monodisperse copper selenide (Cu2-xSe) nanoparticles (NPs) are prepared by thermal decomposition of copper acetylacetonate (Cu(acac)2) in the solution of oleylamine, then selenide at different temperatures with reduce graphene oxide (RGO) as support. These Cu2-xSe NPs are active catalysts as ultrahigh sensitive non-enzymatic glucose biosensor, which exhibits sensitivity of 536 μA mM−1 cm−2, a wide linear range up to 3.375 mM and a low detection limit of 0.05 mM (S/N = 3). Based on good selectivity, sensitivity and the ability of anti-interference, the Cu2-xSe NPs will be the promising sensor for enzyme-free monitoring of glucose. A reliable strategy is developed to fabricate monodisperse copper selenide (Cu2-xSe) nanoparticles (NPs) with RGO as support. The Cu2-xSe NPs which could avoid the agglomeration of NPs and enhance the conductivity with RGO as support, even provide a large number of active sites compared with Cu NPs after selenization, which may open up a promising avenue for developing ultrahigh sensitive sensor for the non-enzymatic detection of glucose. [Display omitted]