Boosting Electrochemical Catalysis and Nonenzymatic Sensing Toward Glucose by Single-Atom Pt Supported on Cu@CuO Core-Shell Nanowires

It is critical to develop high-performance electrocatalyst for electrochemical nonenzymatic glucose sensing. In this work, a single-atom Pt supported on Cu@CuO core-shell nanowires (Pt-1/Cu@CuO NWs) for electrochemical nonenzymatic glucose sensor is designed. Pt-1/Cu@CuO NWs exhibit excellent electrocatalytic oxidation toward glucose with 70 mV lower onset potential (0.131 V) and 2.4 times higher response current than Cu NWs. Sensors fabricated using Pt-1/Cu@CuO NWs also show high sensitivity (852.163 mu A mM(-1) cm(-2)), low detection limit (3.6 mu M), wide linear range (0.01-5.18 mu M), excellent selectivity, and great long-term stability. The outstanding sensing performance of Pt-1/Cu@CuO NWs, investigated by experiments and density functional theory (DFT) calculations, is attributed to the synergistic effect between Pt single atoms and Cu@CuO core-shell nanowires that generates strong binding energy of glucose on the nanowires. The work provides a new pathway for exploring highly active SACs for electrochemical nonenzymatic glucose sensor.