Palladium nanoparticle/chitosan-grafted graphene nanocomposites for construction of a glucose biosensor

Graphene (GR) was covalently functionalized with chitosan (CS) to improve its biocompatibility and hydrophilicity for the preparation of biosensors. The CS-grafted GR (CS-GR) rendered water-soluble nanocomposites that were readily decorated with palladium nanoparticles (PdNPs) using in situ reduction. Results with TEM, SEM, FTIR, Raman and XRD revealed that CS was successfully grafted without destroying the structure of GR, and PdNPs were densely decorated on CS-GR sheets with no aggregation occurring. A novel glucose biosensor was then developed through covalently immobilizing glucose oxidase (GOD) on a glassy carbon electrode modified with the PdNPs/CS-GR nanocomposite film. Due to synergistic effect of PdNPs and GR, the PdNPs/CS-GR nanocomposite film exhibited excellent electrocatalytical activity toward H(2)O(2) and facilitated high loading of enzymes. The biosensor demonstrated high sensitivity of 31.2 μA mM(-1)cm(-2) for glucose with a wide linear range from 1.0 μM to 1.0mM as well as a low detection limit of 0.2 μM (S/N=3). The low Michaelis-Menten constant (1.2mM) suggested enhanced enzyme affinity to glucose. These results indicated that PdNPs/CS-GR nanocomposites held great potential for construction of a variety of electrochemical biosensors.