Facile Synthesis of Polyaniline/Bismuth Nickelate Nanorod Composites for Sensitive Tartaric Acid Detection

Abstract

Polyaniline/bismuth nickelate nanorod composites with different polyaniline mass percentage have been obtained by a simple in-situ polymerizing process. The structure and morpho-logy of the composites are analyzed by X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy. The composites have cubic Bi12NiO19 phase. Amorphous sphere-shaped polyaniline with nanoscale size attaches firmly to the surface of the crystalline bismuth nickelate nanorods. A glassy carbon electrode is modified with polyaniline/bismuth nickelate nanorod composites for the electrochemical detection of tartaric acid. Electrochemical responses of tartaric acid have been investigated by controlling such parameters as the scan rate and tartaric acid concentration. The peak current is linearly raised with increasing the scan rate and tartaric acid concentration. The linear range increases from 0.001–2 mM to 0.0005–2 mM and the limit of detection decreases from 0.37 to 0.18 μM as increasing the polyaniline mass percentage from 10 to 40 wt %. Compared with a bare glassy carbon electrode and a bismuth nickelate nanorods modified polyaniline one greatly enhances the electrochemical detection performance of tartaric acid.