Synthesis of functional carbon nanospheres and amperometric sensing of hydrogen peroxide

Functional carbon nanospheres have been synthesized from analytically pure glucose by a composite-molten-salt (CMS) method. Field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Raman and Fourier transformation infra-red (FTIR) spectroscopy indicate the carbon nanospheres are solid, bond hybridisation (sp(2)/sp(3)) and with many functional groups on their surfaces. Amperometric sensor based on the synthesized carbon nanospheres has been fabricated without pretreatment or modification. The detection of hydrogen peroxide exhibits high sensitivity, good selectivity and excellent reproducibility. The electrochemical measurement of these nanospheres demonstrates much superior performance to those of the carbon nanospheres synthesized by hydrothermal method.