Spinel CoMn2O4 hollow nanospheres for very wide linear and sensitive detection of hydrogen peroxide

• Spinel CoMn 2 O 4 hollow nanospheres were simply prepared using PVP as structure directing agent. • CoMn 2 O 4 /GCE shows the widest linear detection range (0.0012–100.4 mM) among reported spinel oxides sensors. • The synergism of unique microstructure and Co 3+ /Co 2+ -Mn 2+ /Mn 3+ redox coupling promotes rapidly catalytic reduction of H 2 O 2 . • This electrochemical sensor exhibits good practicality in monitoring H 2 O 2 of rat serum and commercial disinfectant. Spinel CoMn 2 O 4 hollow nanospheres with diameter of ~200 nm were facilely prepared using polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) as structure directing agent, which possessed hierarchical pore distribution and large surface area of 43.5 m 2 g −1 . The above nanomaterials were simply drop-coated on the surface of bare glass carbon electrode (GCE) to generate CoMn 2 O 4 /GCE. In phosphate buffer (PBS, pH = 7), the modified electrode presents rapidly sensitive response and low detection limit (0.38 μM) to H 2 O 2 . Especially, its linear detection range (0.0012–100.4 mM) is the widest among reported spinel oxide-based electrochemical sensors to date. This excellent electrocatalytic H 2 O 2 sensing performance primarily derives from the synergism of unique hollow nanosphere structure and the redox coupling of Co 3+ /Co 2+ and Mn 3+ /Mn 2+ . In addition, the CoMn 2 O 4 /GCE sensor also shows good H 2 O 2 recovery in rat serum and commercial disinfectant, indicating that it has a certain potential application in related environmental and biological fields.