Hydroquinone Sensor Based on Neodymium (Nd) Doped ZnO Hexagonal Nanorods

Abstract

Herein, we report a simple hydrothermal synthesis and detailed characterizations of Nd-doped ZnO pointed hexagonal nanorods by various techniques such as field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) attached with energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), UV-visible, Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) and Raman-scattering spectroscopy. The morphological studies revealed pointed hexagonal nanorods arranged in flower-shaped morphologies and well-crystalline with the wurtzite hexagonal phase. The Nd-doped ZnO nanorods were used as potential scaffold to fabricate high sensitivity hydroquinone sensor which exhibited sensitivity of ∼7.43 μA·mM–1cm–2 with a linear dynamic range of (LDR) of 0.313 mM–2.5 mM and correlation coefficient (R2) of 0.99671. The detection limit of Nd-doped ZnO pointed hexagonal nanorods based hydroquinone sensor was found to be 0.313 mM.