Development of NiCoO<sub>2</sub> Nanoparticles based Electrochemical Sensor with Extremely Low Detection for Hazardous 4-Nitrophenol
Shubha MB, C. Manjunatha, M. Sudeep, C. Selvam, Sumira Malik, Praveen Kumar Sekhar
Abstract
In this study, we report the synthesis of Nickel Cobalt Oxide (NiCoO 2 ) nanoparticles by the solution combustion method using Citric acid, Glycine, Urea, and Glucose as green fuels, for the electrochemical detection of 4-nitrophenol (4-NP). The synthesized NiCoO 2 nanoparticles were characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Energy Dispersive X-ray Analysis (EDAX). It was found from XRD and SEM, that the NiCoO 2 synthesized using urea as a fuel had smallest crystalline size and promising morphology as a result, it exhibited very good electrochemical sensing capability. Cyclic Voltammetry (CV) was employed to investigate the electrochemical behavior of the synthesized NiCoO 2 nanoparticles towards 4-Nitrophenol (4-NP) detection. It was found that the NiCoO 2 nanoparticles prepared by using urea exhibited a strong electrochemical response towards the detection of 4-NP, with a linear range of 10–100 μ l and the lowest detection limit of 6.71 nM. Overall, the NiCoO 2 nanoparticles synthesized using the solution combustion method showed an excellent potential for the detection of hazardous 4-NP, which could be further employed for environmental pollutant sensing applications.