A Facile One-Step Synthesis of Cuprous Oxide/Silver Nanocomposites as Efficient Electrode-Modifying Materials for Nonenzyme Hydrogen Peroxide Sensor

Cuprous oxide/silver (Cu(2)O/Ag) nanocomposites were prepared via a facile one-step method and used to construct an electrochemical sensor for hydrogen peroxide (H(2)O(2)) detection. In this method, AgNO(3) and Cu(NO(3))(2) were reduced to Cu(2)O/Ag nanocomposites by glucose in the presence of hexadecyl trimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB) at a low temperature. The optimum condition was the molar ratio of silver nitrate and copper nitrate of 1:10, the temperature of 50 °C. Under this condition, Cu(2)O/Ag nanocomposites were obtained with uniformly distributed and tightly combined Cu(2)O and Ag nanoparticles. The size of Cu(2)O particles was less than 100 nm and that of Ag particles was less than 20 nm. Electrochemical experiments indicate that the Cu(2)O/Ag nanocomposites-based sensor possesses an excellent performance toward H(2)O(2), showing a linear range of 0.2 to 4000 μM, a high sensitivity of 87.0 μA mM(−1) cm(−2), and a low detection limit of 0.2 μM. The anti-interference capability experiments indicate this sensor has good selectivity toward H(2)O(2). Additionally, the H(2)O(2) recovery tests of the sensor in diluted milk solution signify its potential application in routine H(2)O(2) analysis.