Green fabrication of Cu/rGO decorated SWCNT buckypaper as a flexible electrode for glucose detection

As a paper-like membrane composed of single-walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT), buckypaper possesses high conductivity, ideal flexibility, large surface area, great thermal/chemical stability and biocompatibility, which has manifested its potential as an alternative support material. However, due to the lack of defects, high quality SWCNT synthesized by arc-discharge method is difficult to be modified with metal nanoparticles for electro-catalysis. In this paper, a novel green strategy has been developed to fabricate SWCNT buckypaper decorated with Cu/reduced graphene oxide (Cu/rGO-BP) for the first time, in which graphene oxide functions as the intermediate between SWCNT and Cu nanoparticles. The fabricated Cu/rGO-BP was applied as a flexible electrode for electrochemical glucose detection. The electrode exhibited excellent electro-catalytic activity for glucose oxidation. The sensor based on Cu/rGO-BP performed a high upper limit of linear range (25 mM), which is close to commercial glucose sensors. The proposed strategy for Cu/rGO-BP fabrication can be extended to modify buckypaper with other metal or metal oxide nanoparticles, and thus opens an innovative route to potential practical applications of flexible buckypaper in wearable bioelectronics.