Ru doping induced lattice distortion of Cu nanoparticles for boosting electrochemical nonenzymatic hydrogen peroxide sensing

Abstract

In this paper, we report a new strategy to activate the electrocatalytic activity of Cu to realize the non-enzymatic detection of hydrogen peroxide. The Ru-doped copper nanoparticles were prepared on the surface of carbon materials by direct pyrolysis of Ru in exchange for Cu-BTC metal-organic framework. The materials were characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) and x-ray diffraction (XRD). Surprisingly, Ru doping induced obvious lattice distortion of Cu nanoparticles, which made Cu nanoparticles exhibit excellent electrocatalytic activity for hydrogen peroxide reduction. The sensor based on Ru-doped Cu nanoparticles can detect hydrogen peroxide in a wide linear range from 0.01 mM to 5.55 mM. Moreover, as a hydrogen peroxide sensor, it has a high sensitivity of 327.14 µA·mM−1·cm−2 and a low detection limit of 8.9 µM. Therefore, Cu nanoparticles with the lattice distortion was demonstrated to be a potential material for hydrogen peroxide electrochemical sensor.