Porous flower-like Ni5P4 for non-enzymatic electrochemical detection of glucose

Porous flower-like Ni5P4 was successfully synthesized and characterized by XRD, SEM, TEM and XPS. The flower-like Ni5P4 modified glassy carbon electrode (Ni5P4 GCE) has significant electrocatalytic activities for glucose oxidation in 0.1 M sodium hydroxide solution. The experimental results show that the flower-like Ni5P4 has a linear detection range for glucose from 0.002 to 5.3 mM, the detection limit is 0.7 μM (S/N = 3). In addition, this Ni5P4 GCE can be successfully utilized to measure glucose content in human serum, therefore it is expected to be used to determine glucose in actual samples. [Display omitted] •Porous flower-like Ni5P4 was obtained after phosphating at high temperature.•Porous flower-like Ni5P4 is beneficial to the detection of glucose.•Porous flower-like Ni5P4 can improve the electron transfer efficiency of the interface.•The enzyme-free sensor can be used for detection of glucose in human serum.