Localized photothermal effect of Co3O4 nanowires boosts its catalytic performance in glucose electrochemical detection

Co3O4 has been explored extensively for glucose electrochemical detection, while it suffers from limited performance, due to the poor electrical conductivity originated from its semiconductor nature. Photethermal effect (PE) localized on the electrode surface has been illustrated as an attractive strategy in boosting water electrolysis, yet little insight was thrown on glucose electrochemical detection. In this paper, a one-stone-two-birds strategy to integrate PE and electrocatalytic activity of Co3O4 nanowires array supported on nickel foam (Co3O4 NWs/NF) was proposed for glucose electrochemical detection. Under near-infrared (NIR) light irradiation, the temperature of Co3O4 NWs/NF electrode was elevated, along with an enlarged electrochemical surface area (ECSA) and accelerated electron transfer process. PE assisted Co3O4 NWs/NF (PE- Co3O4 NWs/NF) shows high performance in glucose sensing, with a wide linear range from 1 μM to 0.73 mM, an excellent sensitivity of 26.17 mA mM-1 cm-2 and a low limit of detection of 0.56 μM. Moreover, PE-Co3O4 NWs/NF shows good feasibility and reliability for glucose determination in human serum samples. This work proposes a photothermal electrocatlytic dual functional system for glucose electrochemical sensing, and provides a novel approach in boosting Co3O4 catalytic activity in glucose detection.