An in-situ synthesis of novel Au@NG-PPy nanocomposite for enhanced electrocatalytic activity toward selective and sensitive sensing of catechol in natural samples

5 years ago

An in-situ synthesis of novel Au@NG-PPy nanocomposite for enhanced electrocatalytic activity toward selective and sensitive sensing of catechol in natural samples

This paper describes a highly sensitive and selective electrochemical sensing of catechol (CC) using gold nanoparticles decorated nitrogen doped graphene covalently grafted polypyrrole (Au@NG-PPy) nanocomposite modified electrode. The Au@NG-PPy nanocomposite was synthesized by in-situ oxidative polymerization method and characterized by various techniques such as FT-IR, XRD, Raman, SEM, HR-TEM, EDX and mapping analysis. Under the optimized condition, the Au@NG-PPy nanocomposite modified electrode shows a higher electrocatalytic activity towards oxidation of catechol compared to NG and NG-PPy. The enhanced electrochemical activity of the catalyst is owing to better electron transfer efficiency, good conductivity and high surface area of the nanocomposite. A very good selectivity is able to be achieved by as-synthesized Au@NG-PPy toward the determination of 0.1μM CC in the presence of 100-fold higher concentrations of common interferents including hydroquinone. The catechol sensor exhibits a wide sensing linear range from 0.1–0.9μM and the detection limit is found to be 0.0016μM (S/N=3). The proposed method has been successfully applied for the selective determination of CC in various real samples such as apple juice, green tea and tap water with good recoveries.

Publisher URL: www.sciencedirect.com/science

DOI: S0925400517311668