Solvent-free synthesis of sheet-like carbon coated MnO with three-dimensional porous structure for simultaneous detection of dopamine and uric acid

Abstract

A kind of one-step, solvent-free, environment-friendly method is always highly appreciated in synthesis of electrocatalyst. In this work, MnO nanoparticles were coated by sheet-like carbon (MnO/C) for building a three-dimensional electrocatalyst with interconnected mesopores. Moreover, the unique porous structure of MnO/C can be facilely achieved through a one-step solvent-free calcination. In the calcination, 2-methylimidazole (2-MeIm) decomposed into carbon framework at the catalysis of MnO. The interconnected pores consisted of sheet-like carbon can significantly reduce mass transfer resistances and prevent the aggregation of MnO. Therefore MnO/C modified glassy carbon electrode (GCE) exhibited high activities in simultaneous detection of dopamine (DA) and uric acid (UA), with the sensitivities of 9.92 μA μM−1 for DA, 8.42 μA μM−1 for UA. The limits of detection were calculated as 0.009 μM and 0.03 μM for DA and UA, respectively. Moreover, MnO/C has promising application in detection of human urine and serum due to the satisfactory recoveries.