Abstract
Electrochemical dissolution of metallic copper into slightly acidic aqueous solutions of chitosan yields a clear and stable dispersion of Copper Oxide nanoparticles into the organic polymer host. The electrochemically synthesized chitosan:CuOx nanocomposite is characterized by means of spectrophotometry, frequency domain electrical measurements and morphological analysis. Solid state electrochemical cells having pure chitosan as the electrolyte and using chitosan:CuOx as the electrode, are developed and characterized by means of electrical measurements performed in the ±1 V voltage window. The current-voltage loops of the cells, measured in deionized water, are found to reversibly change in response to hydrogen peroxide added to the water in 0.2 μM subsequent steps. Such changes, clearly distinguishable from changes recorded in response to other analytes, can be exploited in order to develop a hydrogen peroxide sensor able to work without the need for any supporting electrolyte.
Highlights
Hybrid materials, consisting of nanosized inorganic compounds dispersed into organic polymer hosts, have been the subject of renewed interest over the last few decades, owing to their facile preparation and to their potentiality in a variety of fields, going from fuel cells and supercapacitors [1,2], to photovoltaic energy generation [3,4], sensing [5,6], and catalysis [7,8]
We demonstrate that the presence of hydrogen peroxide in water, can be successfully water, canatbe successfullylevel detected at a micromolar levelcell byin means a solid state cellboth in which detected a micromolar by means of a solid state whichofchitosan is used as the chitosan is used both as thethe polyelectrolyte that provides the polyelectrolyte that provides electrical connection betweenthe the electrical electrodes,connection and as the between host polymer electrodes, and as the host polymer of the electrochemically active nanocomposite used as the of the electrochemically active nanocomposite used as the electrode
The electrochemically derived materials based on chitosan and copper were developed starting from chitosan acidic aqueous solutions transparent in the visible spectral range, as it is shown in the from chitosan acidic aqueous solutions transparent in the visible spectral range, as it is shown in the spectrum of Figure 1a
Summary
Hybrid materials, consisting of nanosized inorganic compounds dispersed into organic polymer hosts, have been the subject of renewed interest over the last few decades, owing to their facile preparation and to their potentiality in a variety of fields, going from fuel cells and supercapacitors [1,2], to photovoltaic energy generation [3,4], sensing [5,6], and catalysis [7,8]. Whenever the hybrid material has to be used in applications that involve interaction with living organisms, as is the case in the field of tissue engineering, in drugs delivery, and in food industry, the polymer host matrix is required to be biocompatible and to show no toxicity and allergenicity. From the chemical point of view, it has the ability to interact with metal ions, organic halogen substances, and biological molecules, through a variety of mechanisms including chelation, electrostatic attraction, and ion exchange For these reasons, chitosan has been successfully used in environmental applications, such as the removal of contaminants from wastewater [13]. There are, several examples of gas [15,16,17,18] and humidity [19] sensors based on thin films of chitosan, and a wide variety of enzymatic [20,21,22] and enzyme-free [23,24,25]
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