CNR ExploRA

Articolo in rivista, 2023, ENG, 10.3390/nano13071163

Model of Chronoamperometric Response towards Glucose Sensing by Arrays of Gold Nanostructures Obtained by Laser, Thermal and Wet Processes

Antonino Scandurra, Valentina Iacono, Stefano Boscarino, Silvia Scalese, Maria Grazia Grimaldi, Francesco Ruffino

Department of Physics and Astronomy "Ettore Majorana", University of Catania, via Santa Sofia 64, 95123 Catania, Italy 2 Institute for Microelectronics and Microsystems of National Research Council of Italy (CNR-IMM, Catania University Unit), via Santa Sofia 64, 95123 Catania, Italy 3 Research Unit of the University of Catania, National Interuniversity Consortium of Materials Science and Technology (INSTM-UdR of Catania), via S. Sofia 64, 95125 Catania, Italy 4 Institute for Microelectronics and Microsystems of National Research Council of Italy (CNR-IMM), Ottava Strada, 5 (Zona Industriale), 95121 Catania, Italy

Non-enzymatic electrochemical glucose sensors are of great importance in biomedical applications, for the realization of portable diabetic testing kits and continuous glucose monitoring systems. Nanostructured materials show a number of advantages in the applications of analytical electrochemistry, compared to macroscopic electrodes, such as great sensitivity and little dependence on analyte diffusion close to the electrode-solution interface. Obtaining electrodes based on nanomaterials without using expensive lithographic techniques represents a great added value. In this paper, we modeled the chronoamperometric response towards glucose determination by four electrodes consisting of nanostructured gold onto graphene paper (GP). The nanostructures were obtained by electrochemical etch, thermal and laser processes of thin gold layer. We addressed experiments obtaining different size and shape of gold nanostructures. Electrodes have been characterized by field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), cyclic voltammetry, and chronoamperometry. We modeled the current-time response at the potential corresponding to two-electrons oxidation process of glucose by the different nanostructured gold systems. The finest nanostructures of 10-200 nm were obtained by laser dewetting of 17 nm thin and 300 °C thermal dewetting of 8 nm thin gold layers, and they show that semi-infinite linear diffusion mechanism predominates over radial diffusion. Electrochemical etching and 17 nm thin gold layer dewetted at 400 °C consist of larger gold islands up to 1 ?m. In the latter case, the current-time curves can be fitted by a two-phase exponential decay function that relies on the mixed second-order formation of adsorbed glucose intermediate followed by its first-order decay to gluconolactone.

Nanomaterials (Basel)