One pot synthesis of nanospheres-like trimetallic NiFeCo nanoalloy: A superior electrocatalyst for electrochemical sensing of hydrazine in water bodies

Abstract

Present study reports a simple, low-cost, rapid electrochemical sensor for the detection of hydrazine (HY) using trimetallic NiFeCo (NFC) nanospheres as an excellent electrocatalyst. The electrode modifier NFC nanospheres were synthesized through one-pot, facile hydrothermal method. Transmission electron microscopic (TEM) results reveal that the nanoparticles are arranged in a well-defined homogeneous spherical in shape, without any agglomeration. It is undoubtfully found that NFC fabricated electrode demonstrated an admirable electrochemical sensing performance towards HY, which might be arise from its low impedance behavior, nanospheres-like architecture and synergic effect among the metallic nanoparticles. The developed electrochemical sensor presented the worthy analytical performance for HY sensing in terms of low detection limit (6.4 nM), wide dynamic range (0.020–3080 μM) and rapid response time (2 s). In addition, the proposed sensor can selectively detect the HY and easily discriminated HY from the possible interfering species. The practical applicability of the proposed novel HY sensor was successfully evaluated in real water samples such as river, lake, tap, and sewage water, achieved satisfactory recoveries with good precision and accuracy.