مشخصات پژوهش

Metal oxide nanoparticles have always been promising candidates for important catalytic processes such as water splitting and glucose detection. Herein, the electrocatalytic activity of CeO2/CuO/Co3O4 heterostructure is compared with CeO2/CuO and single ceria nanostructures in water splitting and glucose sensing processes. The CeO2/CuO/Co3O4 and CeO2/CuO heterostructures are synthesized using co-precipitation method and calcination at 650 °C. The obtained nanostructures are studied by several techniques. The CeO2/CuO/Co3O4 nanoparticles exhibit an excellent catalytic performance in alkaline OER and especially HER such that the overpotential is 110 mV vs. RHE for HER and 520 mV for OER deliver a current density of 10 mA cm−2, which is very low in the comparison of CeO2/CuO and single CeO2. In a summary, the low Tafel slope, significant reduction in semicircular diameter in Nyquist plots and high stability of CeO2/CuO/Co3O4 for a long time under bulk electrolysis in HER and OER confirm an enhancement in electrical transport, low charge transfer resistance and high durability of the electrocatalyst during water splitting. In addition, glucose sensing properties of the electrocatalysts was investigated. No significant sensitivity for glucose is seen in the presence of single ceria, but the modified electrodes by CeO2/CuO/Co3O4 and CeO2/CuO exhibit high sensitivity (70.90 and 184.4 μA mM−1cm−2), a low limit of detection (0.74 and 0.83 μM), a linear range (3–12 mM), and a short-response time (3 s), along with excellent selectivity, stability, and applicability for glucose detection in real analyte.