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Construction of Non-Enzymatic Hydrogen Peroxide Sensors By Exploiting the High Electrocatalytic Activity of Pd-Ag/Rgo Nanocomposites

Thursday, 2 June 2016: 08:20
Aqua 310 A (Hilton San Diego Bayfront)
A. Uzunoglu, S. Song, and L. Stanciu (Purdue University)
The detection of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) plays a key role in various applications including food and environmental analysis, industrial manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, and biochemistry. Besides, the level of H2O2 in aerobic cells is used to diagnose some pathological conditions ranging from diabetes and Alzeimer’s disease to cancer. Therefore, the construction of H2O2 biosensors with high sensitivity and selectivity have attracted great deal of interest in the last couple of decades. Although there are various analytical methods to detect H2O2, such as photometry, chemiluminescence, chromatography, titrimetry, and colorimetry, electrochemical detection of H2O2 is considered one of the most promising techniques due to its high sensitivity, selectivity, and simplicity.  In this work, we designed novel electrochemical non-enzymatic H2O2 sensors by exploiting the high surface area and fast electron transfer rate of reduced graphene oxide (RGO), as well as the high electrocatalytic activity of palladium-silver nanoparticles which were used to decorate RGO. The Pd-Ag/RGO nanocomposites were synthesized using a one-step reduction technique. The prepared metal nanoparticle-decorated RGOs were characterized using transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and X-ray diffraction (XRD) techniques. Electrochemical H2O2 sensors were constructed by casting a certain amount of nanocomposite/dimethylformamide solution on glassy carbon electrodes and subsequent drying at room temperature in air. The analytical performance of the sensors was evaluated by cyclic voltammetry and chronoamperometry methods. The preliminary results revealed that Pd-Ag/RGO sensors had higher electrocatalytic activity towards the reduction of H2O2 compared to Pd/RGO and Ag/RGO sensors. The sensitivity of Pd-Ag/RGO sensors to the reduction of H2O2 was found to be -243 µA mM-1 cm-2 at the working potential of -500 mV (vs. Ag/AgCI). In addition, the Pd-Ag/RGO-based sensors yielded a linear analytical response up to 30 mM.