Size-controllable synthesis of zinc ferrite/reduced graphene oxide aerogels: efficient electrochemical sensing of p-nitrophenol

Abstract

In this study, a nonaqueous method for the synthesis of size-controlled highly crystalline zinc ferrite/reduced graphene oxide (ZFO/rGO) aerogel was provided by using benzyl alcohol as the medium. In our findings, benzyl alcohol was introduced not only as the solvent, but the structure-directing agent and strong reducing agent during the nucleation and growth of ZnFe2O4 nanoparticles (NPs). The characterization analysis indicated that ZnFe2O4 NPs were immobilized on the multilayer rGO with a controllable size of 12 nm. Moreover, the 3D ZFO/rGO aerogel shows excellent electrochemical property as a facile electrochemical sensor for the detection of p-nitrophenol (p-NP). The ZFO/rGO electrochemical sensing offers the advantages of wide linear range (1–500 μmol l−1), excellent sensitivity (23.985 mA mM−1 cm−2), good stability and selectivity (<8.8%). In addition, the possible reaction mechanism of 3D ZFO/rGO aerogel was explained during the detection process under acidic condition. Significantly, our results not only provided insight into the possible reaction mechanism of 3D ZFO/rGO nanocomposite, but proposed the way for the synthesis of highly crystalline materials through a benzyl alcohol-mediated method.

Review—Perovskite/Spinel Based Graphene Derivatives Electrochemical and Biosensors

“…This showed a wide linear range (1−500 μmol.l −1 ), excellent sensitivity 23.985 mA.mM −1 .cm −2 , good stability and selectivity (<8.8%). 82 An electrochemical sensor was developed based on NiFe 2 O 4 / graphene composite. This composite showed excellent enhancement in the sensitivity.…”