Hydrothermal Synthesis of Cr2Se3 Hexagons for Sensitive and Lowlevel Detection of 4-Nitrophenol in Water

Ramaraj, S, Mani, S, Chen, S-M, Palanisamy, S, Velusamy, V, Hall, JM, Chen, T-W and Tien-Wen, T (2018) Hydrothermal Synthesis of Cr2Se3 Hexagons for Sensitive and Lowlevel Detection of 4-Nitrophenol in Water. Scientific Reports, 8. ISSN 2045-2322

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Abstract

We report a simple hydrothermal method used for the synthesis of Cr2Se3 hexagons (h-Cr2Se3) and its application towards electrochemical sensing of 4-nitrophenol (4-NP). The formation of h-Cr2Se3 was confrmed by using scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, X-ray difraction, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The electrochemical activity of the h-Cr2Se3 modifed screen-printed carbon electrode (SPCE) towards 4-NP was studied using cyclic voltammetry (CV) and amperometric i-t techniques. Typically,the obtained results were compared with those for a bare SPCE. The CV result clearly reveals that h-Cr2Se3 modifed SPCE has higher catalytic activity towards reduction of 4-NP than bare SPCE. Hence, h-Cr2Se3 modifed SPCE was concluded as a viable sensor for sensitive determination of 4-NP. Under optimized conditions, h-Cr2Se3 modifed SPCE demonstrates the excellent capacity to detect the 4-NP in a linear range from 0.05µM to 908.0µM. The LOD and sensitivity in detection of 4-NP were determined at 0.01µM and 1.24µAµM−1 cm−2 respectively. The sensor is highly selective and stable and shows reproducible recovery of 4-NP in domestic supply and river water samples.