Synergetic signal amplification of multi-walled carbon nanotubes-Fe3O4 hybrid and trimethyloctadecylammonium bromide as a highly sensitive detection platform for tetrabromobisphenol A.

Feng Zhou,Surong Mei,Tao Jing,Yue Wang,Wei Wu,Yikai Zhou

doi:10.1038/srep38000

Abstract

In this work, we fabricated an electrochemical sensor based on trimethyloctadecylammonium bromide and multi-walled carbon nanotubes-Fe3O4 hybrid (TOAB/MWCNTs-Fe3O4) for sensitive detection of tetrabromobisphenol A (TBBPA). The nanocomposite was characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) techniques. The electrochemical behaviors of TBBPA on TOAB/MWCNTs-Fe3O4 composite film modified glassy carbon electrode (GCE) were investigated by cyclic voltammetry (CV), differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) method. The experimental results indicated that the incorporation of MWCNTs-Fe3O4 with TOAB greatly enhanced the electrochemical response of TBBPA. This fabricated sensor displayed excellent analytical performance for TBBPA detection over a range from 3.0 nM to 1000.0 nM with a detection limit of 0.73 nM (S/N = 3). Moreover, the proposed electrochemical sensor exhibited good reproducibility and stability, and could be successfully applied to detect TBBPA in water samples with satisfactory results.

Highlights

Toxic effects on the human health, improving rapid and reliable methods for Tetrabromobisphenol A (TBBPA) determination in the field of environment monitoring and contaminants controlling is urgent
This study described the preparation and characterization of the glassy carbon electrode (GCE) modified with the composite of Trimethyloctadecylammonium bromide (TOAB)/multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs)-Fe3O4
Which confirmed the formation of the MWCNTs-Fe3O4 nanocomposite instead of the physical mixture of the two components

Summary

Introduction

Toxic effects on the human health, improving rapid and reliable methods for TBBPA determination in the field of environment monitoring and contaminants controlling is urgent. Electrochemical methods are good candidates for in-situ rapid monitoring and detection of TBBPA owing to their intrinsic advantages, which include relatively low-cost instrumentation, easy operation and high sensitivity. Multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) are considered as ideal candidate in the fabrication of electrochemical sensors[34]. MWCNTs can enhance the sensitivity of the electrochemical detection because of their attractive electronic, chemical and mechanical properties[35,36,37,38,39]. Coupling MWCNT-COOH with Fe3O4 as the sensing medium can improve the electron transfer and enhance the analytical sensitivity of electrochemical sensors efficiently. The resulting MWCNTs-Fe3O4 nanocomposite brings new capabilities for electrochemical sensing due to the synergetic effect between Fe3O4 and MWCNT

Methods

Results

Conclusion