Emerging wearable devices with noninvasive biosensing
technologies
have sparked substantial interest for constant monitoring of substances
in bodily fluids, which might be used to detect human health issues.
Uric acid (UA) is a crucial indicator of a high relationship with
gout, hyperuricemia, and Lesch–Nyhan syndrome. Therefore, developing
a wearable device to noninvasively monitor the UA levels in sweat
has drawn enormous attention. In this work, boron-doped graphene quantum
dots anchored to carbon nanotubes (BGQDs/CNTs) were proposed as noble-metal-free
electrocatalysts for the design of the enzyme-free wearable sensors
to monitor the concentration of UA in human sweat. BGQDs could provide
extra active sites to enhance the electrocatalytic ability of the
UA oxidation reaction. From the results, BGQDs/CNTs exhibit ultrahigh
sensitivity of 8.92 ± 0.22 μA μM–1 cm–2 for UA detection compared to pristine CNTs
(4.24 ± 0.24 μA μM–1 cm–2). Moreover, density functional theory calculations indicate that
B atoms can strengthen the UA molecule adsorption and enlarge electron
transfer from the UA molecule to the B-doped graphene sheet, supporting
the high sensitivity of BGQDs for UA detection. Hence, this study
offers a promising electrocatalyst for using an enzyme-free electrochemical
UA sensor with a dependable and steady performance to further the
use of wearable electronics.
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