Au/CeO2/g-C3N4 Nanocomposite Modified Electrode as Electrochemical Sensor for the Determination of Phenol

Abstract

A convenient and simple phenol electrochemical sensor was constructed based on the Au/CeO2/ g-C3N4 nanocomposites, which were obtained by loading the gold–cerium oxide (Au/CeO2) nanoparticle on graphite-like carbon nitride (g-C3N4) through precipitation–reduction methods. The microstructure and morphology of Au/CeO2/g-C3N4 nanocomposite were verified using different techniques such as XRD, TEM, and HRTEM. Voltammetry and amperometry methods were used to study the electrochemical performance of the constructed phenol electrochemical sensors. The results demonstrated evidently that the combination of Au/CeO2 and g-C3N4 may improve sensing performances of phenol determination. The detection linear range of the sensor was 10–90 μM under the optimum parameters. The Au/CeO2/g-C3N4 based electrochemical sensor also has low detection limits (2.33 μM) and high sensitivities (0.1080 mA/μM) for phenol detection. In addition, the sensor also had considerably favorable anti-interference performance. As a consequence, the sensor demonstrated that the electrochemical system provided a promising effective strategy for detection of phenol.