Facile synthesis of a CuSe/PVP nanocomposite for ultrasensitive non-enzymatic glucose biosensing

Non-enzymatic glucose biosensors show high sensitivity, lower response time, wide linear range and low cost. Copper based composites show excellent electrocatalytic tunability and lead to a better charge transfer in electrochemical non-enzymatic glucose biosensors. In this work, a nanocomposite of polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) and copper selenide was synthesized by a facile one pot sol gel method. Synthesized nanomaterials were characterized by XRD, FTIR, UV-visible spectroscopy, SEM, EDS and XPS techniques. Electrochemical behavior was analyzed by cyclic voltammetry (CV), electrochemical impendence (EIS) and chronoamperometry techniques. XRD analysis revealed a hexagonal structure and crystalline nature of CuSe/PVP. FTIR spectra depicted C-N bonding at 1284 cm^-1 and C[double bond, length as m-dash]O stretching at 1634 cm^-1, which indicated the presence of PVP in the nanocomposite. Stretching at 823 cm^-1 was attributed to the presence of copper selenide. UV-visible absorption indicated the bandgap of copper selenide/PVP at 2.7 eV. SEM analysis revealed a flake like morphology of CuSe/PVP. EDS and XPS analysis confirmed the presence of copper and selenium in the prepared nanocomposite. Prior to employing for biosensing applications, it is important to evaluate the antibacterial activity of nanomaterials for long term use in biological in vitro testing. These materials have shown an efficient inhibition zone of 26 mm against Gram negative Pseudomonas at 50 μg ml^-1 and MIC value of 10 μg ml^-1. Cyclic voltammetry shows that CuSe/PVP is a promising biosensor for monitoring glucose levels in a wide linear range of 0.5 mM to 3 mM at an excellent sensitivity of 13 450 μA mM^-1 cm^-2 with an LOD of 0.223 μM. Chronoamperometry measurements revealed a selective behavior of CuSe/PVP for glucose biosensing amongst ascorbic acid and dopamine as common interfering molecules. The nanocomposite was stable after 8 repeated cycles with 92% retention for glucose sensing capacity. This is attributed to the stable nature of the CuSe/PVP nanocomposite as well as higher surface area of available active sites. Herein the CuSe/PVP nanocomposite offered reasonable selectivity, high sensitivity wide linear range with very low LOD, as well as being abundant in nature, this Cu based biosensor has promising applications for future point of care tests (POCT).