Cu2+-doped polypyrrole nanotubes with promoted efficiency for peroxidase mimicking and electrochemical biosensing

A facile template together with doping strategy is presented to fabricate Cu 2+ -doped polypyrrole (Cu 2+ /PPy) nanotubes (NTs) as efficient mimicking peroxidase and electrocatalyst . PPy NTs were first prepared using electrospun polyacrylonitrile nanofibers as templates and subsequently doped with Cu 2+ via a simple immersion strategy. The as-prepared Cu 2+ /PPy NTs not only exhibit an outstanding peroxidase-like catalytic efficiency but also possess an excellent electrocatalytic activity, which is used for the detection of glucose, displaying a great promise for biosensing applications. The good enzyme-like and electrochemical performances of Cu 2+ /PPy NTs are owing to the reduced Fermi level compared with bare PPy NTs, which is beneficial for promoting the electron transfer to the substrate. The novel Cu 2+ /PPy NTs are a novel type of enzyme mimics and electrocatalysts for potential bright applications in biotechnology and environment science.