Ternary Pd–Ni–P nanoparticle-based nonenzymatic glucose sensor with greatly enhanced sensitivity achieved through active-site engineering

We develop a unique ternary Pd–Ni–P nanocatalyst for the sensitive enzymefree electrooxidation detection of glucose under alkaline conditions. By reducing the distance between the Pd and Ni active sites in the Pd–Ni–P nanoparticles (NPs) via atom engineering, the catalyst structure is transformed from Pd@Ni–P dumbbells into spherical NPs, greatly enhancing the catalyst sensitivity. The glassy carbon electrode modified with Pd–Ni–P ternary NPs, which behaves as an efficient nonenzymatic glucose sensor, offers excellent electrocatalytic performance with a high sensitivity of 1,136 μA·mM−1·cm−2, a short response time of 2 s, a wide linear range of 0.5 μM to 10.24 mM, a low limit of detection of 0.15 μM (signal-to-noise ratio = 3), and good selectivity and reproducibility. Moreover, owing to its superior catalytic performance, the Pd–Ni–P modified electrode has excellent reliability for glucose detection in real samples of human serum. Our study provides a promising alternative strategy for designing and constructing high-performance multicomponent nanocatalyst-based sensors.