Uniform nickel nanoparticles decorated porous carbon nanofibers for efficient electrochemical nitrite sensing

Abstract

One-dimensional carbonaceous materials exhibit significant promise for sensing applications driven by their attractive properties. Herein, nickel/nitrogen-doped carbon (Ni/N–C) nanofibers were fabricated via a novel electrospinning-carbonization strategy. The distribution of Ni nanoparticles (NPs) in the carbon nanofibers was crucially affected by the carbonization temperatures. Various techniques were employed to characterize the fabricated Ni/N–C-X (X = 700, 800, and 900 °C, representing the carbonization temperatures) nanofibers, followed by an evaluation of their electrochemical sensing response to nitrite. The Ni/N–C-800-based sensor outperformed those based on the Ni/N–C-700 and Ni/N–C-900 catalysts in detecting nitrite, by merits of the relatively superior conductivity and more exposed active sites. The Ni/N–C-800-based sensor, delivered detected concentrations of 0.2–7000 μM, along with a sensitivity value of 0.991 μA μM−1 cm−2, and a detection limit of 0.1 μM. Furthermore, this Ni/N–C-800-based sensor demonstrated notable selectivity and stability, affirming its practicality in nitrite detection within sausage samples. The findings of this research illustrate that Ni/N–C materials hold great promise for monitoring nitrite.