Synthesis of N-rGO-MWCNT/CuCrO2 Catalyst for the Bifunctional Application of Hydrogen Evolution Reaction and Electrochemical Detection of Bisphenol-A

Abstract

A glassy carbon electrode (GCE) coated with delafossite CuCrO2 loading on the nitrogen-doped reduced graphene oxide (N-rGO) and multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) composite (N-rGO-MWCNT/CuCrO2) was applied to the hydrogen evolution reaction and Bisphenol-A (BPA) detection. First, the N-rGO-MWCNT composite was prepared by in situ chemical reduction with caffeic acid as a reducing agent. Then, CuCrO2 was accumulated on the N-rGO-MWCNT surface to form N-rGO-MWCNT/CuCrO2 composite. The morphology structure of the N-rGO-MWCNT/ CuCrO2 composite was analyzed by different characterization techniques. Besides, the GCE/N-rGO-MWCNT/CuCrO2 composite electrode was investigated for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), which shows an excellent electrocatalytic activity with a low over-potential, increasing reduction current, and a small Tafel slope of 62 mV·dec−1 at 10 mA·cm−2 with long-term stability. Moreover, the electrochemical determination of BPA was in the range of 0.1-110 µM, and low detection limit of 0.033 µM (S/N = 3) with a higher sensitivity of 1.3726 µA µM−1 cm−2. Furthermore, the prepared GCE/N-rGO-MWCNT/CuCrO2 electrode shows effective detection of BPA in food samples with acceptable recoveries. Hence, the finding of GCE/N-rGO-MWCNT/CuCrO2 can be observed as an impressive catalyst to the electrocatalytic activity of HER and BPA oxidation.