Fe doping induced formation of crystalline/amorphous NiCo2O4 core/shell heterostructure for highly sensitive nonenzymatic detection of glucose

A novel strategy was reported to improve electrocatalytic activity of NiCo2O4 by doping Fe. It is interesting to find that the doping of Fe induces formation of nanorod composing with crystalline core and thin amorphous shell. The composition, structure and properties of NiCo2O4 are well characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), cyclic voltammetry and amperometric method. The results display that the presence of thin amorphous shell is conducive to accelerating electron transfer rate and exposing more effective active sites, therefore making the sensor based on Fe-doped NiCo2O4 detect glucose in a wide linear range from 0.2 μM to 3.1 mM with a high sensitivity of 3055.7 μA mM−1 cm−2 and a low detection limit of 0.19 μM. This unique crystalline core/amorphous shell-structured NiCo2O4 demonstrates promising potential as an effective electrocatalyst for glucose sensing.