Construction of a selective non-enzymatic electrochemical sensor based on hollow nickel nanospheres/carbon dots–chitosan and molecularly imprinted polymer film for the detection of glucose

In this work, a non-enzymatic molecularly imprinted electrochemical sensor (MIECS) for the detection of glucose was developed based on a glassy carbon electrode (GCE) modified with hollow nickel nanospheres (HNiNS)/carbon dots (CDs)–chitosan (CS). The HNiNS and CDs–CS act as effective electrochemical materials to improve the active area and electron-transport ability. 3-aminobenzeneboronic acid and glucose were used as the functional monomer and template in the preparation of molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) film. The morphology and properties of the fabricated electrodes were characterized by scanning electron microscope (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry (EDX), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), cyclic voltammetry (CV), differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). The effects of molar ratio of functional monomer on template, elution time, incubation time and scan rates were investigated. The as-prepared HNiNS/CDs–CS/MIP/GCE sensor exhibited high electrochemical activity and recognition ability towards glucose. Under optimal conditions, the current response of glucose had two wide linear relationships with glucose concentrations in the ranges of 0.03–10 μM and 20–300 μM with a relatively low detection limit of 4.6 nM (S/N = 3). The proposed sensor was successfully applied for the detection of glucose in human serum and fermentation samples.