Development of polypyrrole/nano-gold composite for non-enzymatic glucose sensors

Abstract

In this study, a non-enzymatic glucose composed of gold nanoparticle decorated polypyrrole (PPy) is reported. The PPy is prepared by electro-polymerization in 0.05 M phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) containing 0.1 M pyrrole monomer. The gold nanoparticles are decorated by directly dropping 0.1 mM KAuCl4 solution onto the PPy coated electrode. No enzymes are used in preparation of the catalytic electrode. The amount and size of the gold nanoparticles are both found to be dependent on amount of the KAuCl4 solution dropped onto the PPy electrode. The glucose sensing performance is evaluated by cyclic voltammetry in 0.05 M PBS containing 5 mM of glucose with pH at 7.4. The catalytic activity in the oxidation of glucose is confirmed when using the gold nanoparticle decorated PPy as the catalytic electrode, and the performance is found to be affected by the amount of KAuCl4 solution used in preparation of the electrode.

Keywords

• Electrochemical sensor
• Glucose oxidation
• Gold nanoparticles
• Non-enzymatic
• Polypyrrole