A Novel Pentachlorophenol Electrochemical Sensor Based on Nickel-Cobalt Layered Double Hydroxide Doped with Reduced Graphene Oxide Composite

Abstract

A highly sensitive non-enzymatic electrochemical pentachlorophenol (5-CP) sensor was successfully fabricated employing a multi-component sensing platform made of nickel-cobalt layered double hydroxide (NiCo-LDH) supported on green organic-inorganic nanohybrid (rGO-CuO) drop-casted on a gold electrode (AuE). The chemical and morphological properties of the as-synthesized nanostructures were investigated and confirmed by infrared spectroscopy (ATR) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The electrochemical measurements demonstrated that both the good conductivity of and the large active surface area of the hierarchical structure of NiCo-LDH/rGO-CuO favor the electrochemical redox reaction of 5-CP. In the optimized procedure, we have evaluated the analytical performance of the NiCo-LDH/rGO-CuO/AuE using cyclic voltammetry based on the current intensities of the redox peaks. Our findings indicate that the developed NiCo-LDH/rGO-CuO/AuE sensor exhibits a wide linear range from 1 to 50μM while the limit of detection was estimated to be 12.64 nM for 5-CP. Moreover, the suggested 5-CP sensor displayed an excellent stability that might provide a robust sensing platform for the practical and reliable detection of 5-CP in various real samples.