In this work, we have successfully proclaimed the importance of defect prone nanostructure on to the electrode surface for the promising glucose sensing applications. Oxygen-deficient W18O49 moieties with multiple valences W6+ and W5+ have been investigated as an efficient electrocatalyst for the nonenzymatic glucose sensing. In order to highlight the importance of the defect, WO3 nanomaterial's electrode has also been synthesized and tested for glucose sensing. W18O49 delivers a larger Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) surface area and mesoporous pores which have contributed to the high sensitivity performances. The oxygen vacant W18O49 nanostructure has been synthesized by a facile solvothermal route and has retained interconnected nanorods morphology. Compared with non-oxygen-deficient WO3, this defect prone version of tungsten oxide (W18O49) possesses a doubled linearity range up to 1.6 mM maximum electrooxidation toward glucose by giving a 1.6 times higher sensitivity of 167 μA mM-1 cm-2, 0.5 times lower detection limit of 0.02 μM (S/N = 3), and a swift response time of 5 s.
Keywords: active sites; detection limits; oxygen deficiency; sensitivity; surface adsorption.