title: Glucose sensors made of novel carbon nanotube-gold nanoparticle composites.
abstract: Carbon nanotube and metal particle composites have been exploited to fabricate high performance electrochemical devices. However, the physical and chemical procedures to synthesize the composites are labor intensive and inefficient. Our study reveals an one-step wet chemistry method to accomplish fast and controllable production of gold nanoparticle (AuNP) and carbon naotube (CNT) composites. Such a process is sensitive to the surface charge. Especially, when functionalized with carboxyl groups, the CNTs carried negative charges and showed low level association with negatively charged AuNPs. Thermal treatment was employed to decompose the carboxyl groups and render each CNT a charge-free surface thereby achieving a high level AuNP-CNT association. The fabricated glucose sensors demonstrated dependence of their sensitivities to the amount of AuNPs on the CNTs. The enhancement of sensitivity can be attributed to an accelerated electron transfer rate from glucose oxidase Gox to the electrode. The Michaelis-Menten kinetics also indicated improved performance in the glucose sensor made of AuNP-CNTs. Therefore, our research revealed a novel approach to produce metallic nanoparticle and CNT composite for fabricating high performance electrochemical sensors.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA 02467, USA. caid@bc.edu
authors.forename: Dong
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Cai
authors.forename: Ying
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.forename: Yucheng
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Lan
authors.forename: Fay J
authors.initials: FJ
authors.lastname: Dufort
authors.forename: Guangyong
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Xiong
authors.forename: Trilochan
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Paudel
authors.forename: Zhifeng
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Ren
authors.forename: Dean J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Wagner
authors.forename: Thomas C
authors.initials: TC
authors.lastname: Chiles
mesh_terms: D015374:Biosensing Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D004563:Electrochemistry; D005947:Glucose / Q000032:analysis*; D005949:Glucose Oxidase / Q000378:metabolism; D006046:Gold / Q000737:chemistry*; D053768:Metal Nanoparticles; D046529:Microscopy, Electron, Transmission; D037742:Nanotubes, Carbon
chemical_list: D037742:Nanotubes, Carbon; D006046:Gold; D005949:Glucose Oxidase; D005947:Glucose