Graphene-supported PtPd Bimetallic Gathered Nanocrystals for Non-enzymatic Sensing of Oxalic Acid.

Abstract

A novel non-enzymatic oxalic acid (OA) sensor was developed using a nanocrystal PtPd loaded reduced graphene nanosheets (PtPdNCs/RGO)-modified electrode. PtPdNCs/RGO were successfully achieved by a facile, one-step and template-free method, in which PtPd nanoparticles with 100 nm-scale were assembled from polyhedral PtPd nanocrystals of various shapes and dispersed on the graphene nanosheets. Resulting PtPdNCs/RGO were characterized and used for PtPdNCs/RGO-modified electrodes. Electrochemical oxidation of OA on the modified electrode was investigated by cyclic voltammetry and differential pulse voltammetry (DPV). Well-defined peaks of OA oxidation could be obtained using an electrode that indicated its high electrochemical activity. The concentration of OA and the current responses could be obtained in the ranges of 0.5 - 10 and 10 - 35 mM with correlation coefficients of 0.9994 and 0.9952; the detection limit (S/N = 3) was found to be 0.05 mM. The modified electrode presented good characteristics in terms of both stability and reproducibility, promising its applicability in practical analysis.