CdTe nanorods for nonenzymatic hydrogen peroxide biosensor and optical limiting applications

Abstract

Cadmium telluride nanorods (CdTe NRs) have been prepared by the hydrothermal method using ascorbic acid and characterized by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, linear and nonlinear optical properties, magnetic properties, and electrochemical analysis. The temperature-dependent magnetic study shows the ferromagnetic behavior. Modified CdTe NRs/glassy carbon electrode was used as the hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) biosensor. It exhibits a linear range (0.67–8.04 μM) with good sensitivity (1326 μA mM−1 cm−2), detection limit (0.1 μM), and a rapid amperometric response time (5 s). It displays a high selectivity toward H2O2 and interference-free phenomenon for other electroactive species such as ascorbic and oxalic acids. The sensor has good selectivity, stability, and reproducibility. CdTe NRs show a better optical limiting property under laser excitation (532 nm, 9 ns) with the two-photon absorption (TPA) coefficient of 12.0 × 10−10 m/W at 100 μJ and an optical limiting of 1.60 J/cm2. These results indicated that the prepared materials could be promising for the detection of hydrogen peroxide and for use as memory storage devices and optical limiters.