ZnO nanorods anchored on CNTs incorporating carbon cloth flexible electrode as a highly sensitive electrochemical sensor

Abstract Monitoring glucose, uric acid (UA) and hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ) concentration has emerged as a critical health care issue to prevent acute complications and to minimize the hazard of long-term complications. In this paper, a novel non-enzyme electrochemical sensor was proposed with nanorod-like zinc oxide anchored on carbon nanotubes using a direct precipitation method and then decorated onto carbon cloth (ZnO/CNTs/CC). The ZnO/CNTs composite was characterized by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Raman spectrum, TEM microscope and electrochemistry. The sensing of UA, glucose and H 2 O 2 individually or simultaneously was done on a ZnO/CNTs/CC electrode, and the superior performance lies in its wide linear range, low detection limit and high selectivity, which is attributed to the synergistic effect of (a) the good electrocatalytic activity of ZnO nanorods, and (b) the large surface area with high conductivity offered by CNTs. Moreover, the ZnO/CNTs/CC electrode showed good reproducibility, stability and selectivity. Importantly, the developed sensor platform has been successfully applied to probe glucose, UA and H 2 O 2 in human serum with satisfactory recoveries. Our proposed approach is simple in fabrication and operation, which provides a straightforward assay for the reliable and cost-effective determination of glucose, UA and H 2 O 2 in clinical diagnosis and biomedical applications.