MXene-based composite electrodes for efficient electrochemical sensing of glucose by non-enzymatic method

A recently discovered 2D transition titanium metal carbides also called as MXenes (Ti₃C₂T_x)-based nanocomposite was prepared with Cu₂O through wet precipitation technique, and these materials were further developed as the electrode for sensing glucose by chronoamperometry technique. The prepared MXene-Cu₂O (Ti₃C₂T_x-Cu₂O) nanocomposite was characterized by XRD, FTIR, UV–Vis spectroscopy, FE-SEM, EDAX, and Raman spectroscopy. Morphological studies of the composites revealed that the micro-octahedral shape of Cu₂O is distributed on the surface of MXene with size larger than bare Cu₂O. Further, the prepared composite material was fabricated as a sensing probe, and the electrochemical activities were examined by cyclic voltammetric analysis (CV) and chronoamperometric (CA) methods. From the CV and CA investigation, the current response was higher for the composite than the bare material (Cu₂O & MXene) in the presence of glucose. The amperometric investigation of MXene-Cu₂O composite for the detection of glucose shows a broad linear range (0.01–30 mM) with a sensitivity of 11.061/μAmM cm^?2 and a detection limit of 2.83 μM. Further, the fabricated sensor exhibits good selectivity with interfering species like NaCl, fructose, sucrose, urea, ascorbic acid, lactose, short response time, stability, good reproducibility, and compatibility with human serum sample. From the investigation, the prepared MXene-Cu₂O composite is a good candidate for the direct detection of glucose molecules and is also well suitable for clinical diagnosis.