In situ synthesis of gold nanoparticles on porous polyacrylonitrile nanofibers for sensing applications

Zhen Liu, Cuisong Zhou, Baozhan Zheng, Lei Qian, Yan Mo, Fulian Luo, Yalin Shi, Martin M F CHOI, Dan Xiao*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articlepeer-review

30 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

A simple and cost-effective method was reported to synthesize small size (6 nm) gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) on polyacrylonitrile (PAN) electrospun nanofibers (AuNPs/PAN). The formation of AuNPs is attributed to the in situ reduction of Au(iii) to Au(0) by 4-(dimethylamino)benzaldehyde doped in the PAN nanofibers. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and cyclic voltammetry (CV) confirmed that the AuNPs/PAN nanofibers showed good conductivity. The AuNPs/PAN nanofibers were used to immobilize tris(2,2′-bipyridyl) ruthenium(ii) ions (Ru(bpy)32+) to form an electrochemiluminescence (ECL) sensor. The AuNPs on the PAN nanofibers exhibited an excellent catalytic effect on the ECL of Ru(bpy)32+ which could be employed to detect low concentrations of phenolic compounds. The linear response range of the ECL sensor to hydroquinone is 0.55-37 μM with limit of detection of 80 nM (S/N = 3). This sensor has been successfully applied to determine the hydroquinone content in photographic developer samples. Our work provides a very simple and cost-effective method to synthesize AuNPs on polymer nanofibers which shows great potential in the field of electrocatalysis and chemo/biosensors.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)4545-4551
Number of pages7
JournalAnalyst
Volume136
Issue number21
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 7 Nov 2011

Scopus Subject Areas

  • Analytical Chemistry
  • Biochemistry
  • Environmental Chemistry
  • Spectroscopy
  • Electrochemistry

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