Design of metal oxide nanoparticles‐embedded polymeric nanocomposites for hydrogen peroxide chronoamperometric sensor

Abstract

AbstractHere, we synthesized nanocomposites of poly(methyl methacrylate/N,N‐dimethylaminoethyl methacrylate/acrylic acid) [poly(MMA/DMAEMA/AA)] incorporated with cadmium oxide (CdO), copper oxide (CuO), manganese oxide (MnO2), and selenium oxide (SeO2) nanoparticles via microemulsion polymerization. Fourier‐transform infrared spectroscopy (FT‐IR), x‐ray diffraction (XRD) analysis, transmission electron microscope (TEM), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) as well as electrochemical techniques like cyclic voltammetry (CV), and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) were utilized to determine and understand the physico‐chemical features of the polymers (MMA/DMAEMA/AA) and their embedded metal oxide (MO) nanoparticles. According to the TEM results, well‐defined nanospheres of the pure polymer and its composite were obtained in the range of 45–75 nm, respectively. The electrochemical characteristics of all CdO, CuO, MnO2, and SeO2‐based nanocomposites showed significant improvement, with capacitance values higher than those of the poly(MMA/DMAEMA/AA) nanosphere assemblies alone. Therefore, the nanocomposites were tested for direct hydrogen peroxide sensing along with direct transfer of electrons. The amperometry results showed a fast linear sensitivity in the range of 1–1000 μM with a lower detection limit of 0.03 μM. As a result, these materials could be recommended for battery storage and hydrogen peroxide sensing devices due to the significantly improved electrochemical properties offered by the synthesized nanocomposites.Highlights Microemulsion polymerization of nanocomposites incorporated with nanoparticles. The nanoparticles improve the nanocomposites' electro capacitance values. The developed nanocomposites exhibit supercapacitors and energy storage. The novel nanocomposites enable direct and fast hydrogen peroxide sensing.