Cost-Effective Electrochemical Activation of Graphitic Carbon Nitride on the Glassy Carbon Electrode Surface for Selective Determination of Serotonin
Vijayaraj Kathiresan, Thenmozhi Rajarathinam, Seulah Lee, Suhkmann Kim, Jaewon Lee, Dinakaran Thirumalai, Seung‐Cheol Chang
Abstract
A simple one-step electrochemical deposition/activation of graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) is highly desired for sensor configurations and remains a great challenge. Herein, we attempt an electrochemical route to exfoliate the g-C3N4 nanosheets in an aqueous solution of pH 7.0 for constructing a sensor, which is highly sensitive for the detection of serotonin (5-HT). The significance of our design is to exfoliate the g-C3N4 nanosheets, a strong electrocatalyst for 5-HT detection. Investigations regarding the effect of neutral pH (pH 7.0) on the bulk g-C3N4 and g-C3N4 nanosheets, physical characterization, and electrochemical studies were extensively carried out. We demonstrate that the g-C3N4 nanosheets have a significant electrocatalytic effect for the 5-HT detection in a dynamic linear range from 500 pM to 1000 nM (R2 = 0.999). The limit of detection and sensitivity of the designed 5-HT sensor was calculated to be 150 pM and 1.03 µA µM−1 cm−2, respectively. The proposed sensor has great advantages such as high sensitivity, good selectivity, reproducibility, and stability. The constructed g-C3N4 nanosheets-based sensor platform opens new feasibilities for the determination of 5-HT even at the picomolar/nanomolar concentration range.