Exploiting electrocatalysts with high activity for glucose oxidation is of central importance for practical applications such as glucose fuel cell. Pt-decorated nanoporous gold (NPG-Pt), created by depositing a thin layer of Pt on NPG surface, was proposed as an active electrode for glucose electrooxidation in neutral and alkaline solutions. The structure and surface properties of NPG-Pt were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), and cyclic voltammetry (CV). The electrocatalytic activity toward glucose oxidation in neutral and alkaline solutions was evaluated, which was found to depend strongly on the surface structure of NPG-Pt. A direct glucose fuel cell (DGFC) was performed based on the novel membrane electrode materials. With a low precious metal load of less than 0.3 mg cm -2 Au and 60 μg cm -2 Pt in anode and commercial Pt/C in cathode, the performance of DGFC in alkaline is much better than that in neutral condition.

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With characteristic of structural integrity and high surface area, nanoporous gold (NPG) prepared by dealloying method is proposed to be a highly sensitive catalyst for glucose electrooxidation. It can be found that a-NPG which obtained by electrochemical corrosion method has the highest sensitivity for glucose electrooxidation among the three studied samples. Under alkaline conditions, the catalytic current density of a-NPG is over 1.5 times and 17 times higher than that of f-NPG (prepared by free corrosion) and poly-Au electrode, respectively. Using a-NPG sample for glucose detection, the obtained minimum sensible concentration are 413 nM in alkaline media and 1 μM in neutral solutions. The a-NPG electrode also shows stable recovery and reproducibility characteristics. These results indicate that NPG may work as an efficient electrode material for electrochemical sensors and a promising catalyst for alkaline glucose fuel cells.

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