Facile synthesis of aminophenylboronic decorated electrospun CoFe2O4 spinel nanofibers with enhanced electrocatalytic performance for glucose electrochemical sensor application

Abstract CoFe2O4 nanoparticles uniformly decorated on the carbon nanofibers have been fabricated via electrospinning and subsequent calcination process. Aminophenylboric acid (APBA), as a glucose specific molecule, was modified on the surface of CoFe2O4@N-CNFs via the vapor chemical crosslinking approach. The fabricated APBA@CoFe2O4@N-CNFs hybrids were explored as electrocatalyst for the non-enzymatic electrochemical determination of glucose. Because of the synergistic effect of various materials, APBA@CoFe2O4@N-CNFs exhibits excellent non-enzymatic glucose detection properties involving sensitivity, selectivity, response time and linear correction. The remarkable electrocatalytic capability was mainly ascribed to the fact that N-CNFs with excellent electrical conductivity acted as a matrix guided the growth of CoFe2O4 nanoparticles, thus improving the dispersibility of CoFe2O4 and providing an enhanced efficient electron transport pathway. The spinel-type CoFe2O4 nanoparticles provided enhanced conductivity, while the porous structure of N-CNFs supplied the abundant active sites, which further improved the electrocatalysis. Besides, aminophenylboric acid, as a recognition molecule, was beneficial to the specific recognition of glucose molecules. Therefore, APBA@CoFe2O4@N-CNFs is promising as an important candidate material for glucose sensors due to its excellent performance, high efficiency and simple manufacturing process.