Facile synthesis of Pt-Cu bimetallic catalyst on reduced graphene oxide nanosheets and its application for electrochemical sensing

Abstract

The fabrication and application of bimetallic catalysts are of significance in enhanced electrocatalytic performance. In this work, sea urchin-like Pt-Cu bimetallic catalyst was synthesized by a one-pot aqueous method. The alloy was reduced and grown directly on the surface of reduced graphene oxide (RGO), which can maximize the contact/interaction between metals and RGO to achieve the enhanced catalytic activity. The transmission electron microscopy images revealed that the Pt-Cu bimetallic particles were uniformly dispersed on RGO in the shape of sea urchin-like with the size about ~ 20 nm. A hydrazine electrochemical sensor was built by modifying glassy carbon electrode with Pt-Cu/RGO nanomaterial. The electrochemical experiments showed that the proposed sensor exhibited an excellent performance for hydrazine analysis with a wide linear range of 0.4 μM-12 mM and a low detection limit of 0.13 μ M (S/N = 3). Additionally, the sensor also demonstrated a long term stability, good selectivity and repeatability.