One-pot synthesis of copper nanoparticles on glass: applications for non-enzymatic glucose detection and catalytic reduction of 4-nitrophenol

Thin film of metallic Cu nanoparticles was synthesized by a one-pot chemical reduction method at ambient temperature. Cu(II) acetate monohydrate and hydrazine monohydrate were used as precursor and reducing agent without additional surfactants to form uniform layer of Cu nanoparticle layer on a glass substrate (Cu/G). The XRD and the effectiveness of the electrocatalytic and catalytic properties of the Cu/G have been applied for an amperometric detection of glucose and for the chemical reduction of 4-nitrophenol. The former exhibited the detection limit as low as 2.47 μM with a linear range of 0.01–0.2 mM, while the latter showed the efficient catalytic activity with a high rate constant of 0.503/min. The current method suggested in this work might be useful for the fabrication of glass-based Cu nanoparticles electrodes for industrial and biomedical applications.