Graphene-induced tiny flowers of organometallic polymers with ultrathin petals for hydrogen peroxide sensing

Abstract

A facile and efficient approach for scalable synthesis of polymer flowers decorated with Prussian blue (PB) and graphene nanosheets is reported for the first time. This approach involved graphene-induced crystallization of polyethylene capped with a cyanoferrate complex (PE–Fe), followed by in situ coordination polymerization of cyanoferrate complex with Fe3+ on the surface. The morphological and thermal analyses demonstrated that graphene nanosheets prompted the crystallization of PE–Fe, affording the formation of hybrid flowers of 3μm. The tiny flowers were comprised of ultrathin petals of 10nm in thickness, which consisted of a single polyethylene lamella sandwiched between two PB/graphene nanolayers. Hybrid flowers exhibited excellent electrocatalytic activity toward reduction of hydrogen peroxide. Maximum reduction current of hybrid flowers was two orders of magnitude higher compared with conventional PB particles. Moreover, the sensors based on hybrid flowers showed by far higher successive performance ability as contrast to conventional PB particles. Such graphene-induced flower-like nanoarchitectures offer a catalog of functional nanomaterials useful for biosensing and nanodevices.