Peptide-inspired green synthesis of hedgehog-like CuO nanoclusters on reduced graphene oxide for non-enzymatic hydrogen peroxide sensor

Bioinspired synthesis provides a potential green method for creating functional nanomaterials on graphene supports. In this study, we demonstrate the preparation of hedgehog-like cupric oxide nanoclusters (CuONCs) on peptide-modified reduced graphene oxide (RGO-Pep) nanohybrids through a solution-phase synthesis in which the bound peptide molecules (GNNQQNYEE) mediate the non-covalent modification of GO and provide the adsorption of Cu[Formula: see text] ions and the nucleation sites for the growth of CuONCs. The synthesized RGO-Pep-CuONCs hybrids were further utilized for the modification of a glass carbon electrode to fabricate a non-enzymatic electrochemical sensor for hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂). It was found that the fabricated H₂O₂ sensor exhibited good performances for sensing H₂O₂ with a detection limit of [Formula: see text]M and two wide linear detection ranges. In addition, this sensor revealed good selectivity and stability. It is expected that the strategies used in this study will be valuable to inspire the creation of various functional biomolecule- and graphene-based hybrid bionanomaterials for the applications in materials science, sensors, biomedical engineering, tissue engineering, nanotechnology, and other fields.