A performance improvement of enzyme-based electrochemical lactate sensor fabricated by electroplating novel PdCu mediator on a laser induced graphene electrode

•Laser induced graphene (LIG) based sensor fabricated by simple and affordable process.•LIG and PdCu based lactate sensor achieved large active surface area.•Use of PdCu as novel mediator significantly increased sensitivity.•Sensor demonstrated excellent selectivity against interference substances. A lactate sensor for lactate sensing using porous laser-induced graphene (LIG) electrodes with an electrodeposited PdCu catalyst was developed in this study. CO2 laser was used to convert the polyimide film surface to multilayered LIG. The morphology and composition of LIG were analyzed through field-emission scanning electron microscopy and Raman spectroscopy, respectively, to confirm that the fabricated LIG electrode was composed of porous and stacked graphene layers. PdCu was electrodeposited on the LIG electrode and lactate oxidase (LOx) was immobilized on the LIG surface to create a LOx/PdCu/LIG structure. According to the Randles–Ševčík equation, the calculated active surface area of the fabricated PdCu/LIG electrode was ∼12.8 mm2, which was larger than the apparent area of PdCu/LIG (1.766 mm2) by a factor of 7.25. The measured sensitivities of the fabricated lactate sensors with the LOx/PdCu/LIG electrode were −51.91 μA/mM·cm2 (0.1–5 mM) and −17.18 μA/mM·cm2 (5–30 mM). The calculated limit of detection was 0.28 μM. The selectivity of the fabricated lactate sensor is excellent toward various potentially interfering materials such as ascorbic acid, uric acid, lactose, sucrose, K+ and Na+.