Synthesis of gold-graphene nanocomposites for the electrochemical quantification of hydrogen peroxide and glucose

Abstract

Electrochemical quantification of biomarkers in fluids frequently employs metallic nanoparticles as detection substrates. The development of quantification materials has evolved in recent decades with the incorporation of graphene materials into measurement systems, generating variants of graphene-nanometal composites. Composite materials take advantage of the great electronic conductivity of graphene and the increase in sensitivity and selectivity that it confers. Graphene oxide and its reduced products have traditionally been used in the manufacture of graphene-metal nanoparticle composites. The trend is explained by the relative ease of synthesis of graphene oxidized materials, however, this ease has as a drawback the loss of electrical properties of the synthesized materials and the possible decrease in their detection characteristics. To avoid these restrictions, ideally, non-oxidized graphene materials should be used as substrates, however their manufacture is not easy. This work reports a method of preparing pristine graphene nanoplatelets and their easy conversion to gold nanoparticle-decorated composites. We describe the use of the compounds as useful substrates for the electrochemical quantification of glucose and hydrogen peroxide in fluids.