Core–shell TiC/C nanofiber arrays decorated with copper nanoparticles for high performance non-enzymatic glucose sensing

A high-performance non-enzymatic glucose sensing platform based on TiC/C nanofiber arrays decorated with Cu nanoparticles (Cu@TiC/C) is described. Copper nanoparticles with a size of 30–50 nm are uniformly distributed on the surface of the core–shell of TiC/C nanofibers which are produced on a Ti alloy substrate in situ and enable glucose detection in solution. The Cu@TiC/C electrode displays two linear ranges: one range from 1.0 μM to 1.7 mM with a correlation coefficient of 0.997 and a sensitivity of 415.02 μA cm−2 mM−1, another range from 1.7 mM to 5.2 mM with a correlation coefficient of 0.997 and a sensitivity of 260.05 μA cm−2 mM−1. The sensor also offers favorable reproducibility, stability and potential applications for real sample analysis while suffering from minimal interferences and is thus promising in clinical applications.