Electrochemical detection of natural organic matter (humic acid) and splitting of hydrogen peroxide on a micropore 3D ca
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Research Letter
Electrochemical detection of natural organic matter (humic acid) and splitting of hydrogen peroxide on a micropore 3D catalytic polysulfone–copper oxide nanocomposite surface Olayemi J. Fakayode and Thabo T.I. Nkambule, Institute of Nanotechnology and Water Sustainability Research Unit (iNanoWS), College of Science, Engineering and Technology (CSET), University of South Africa (UNISA), Florida Campus, 60 Christian de wet street, P.O. Box 2820, Roodepoort, Florida, Gauteng, South Africa Address all correspondence to Olayemi J. Fakayode at [email protected], [email protected] (Received 26 March 2020; accepted 3 August 2020)
Abstract The development of new metalloplastic material from the combination of an alkaline-fused dehydrated glucose–copper (II) chloride, carbon soot, and polysulfone and the evaluation of its potential for the electrochemical detection of a pro-carcinogenic humic acid in water is reported. Excellent detection limit greater than 1 pico-part-per-million (order of 10–13 mg/L) was achieved, a value that proved to be first-of-its-kind till date. Transfer coefficients between 0.8 and 1.0 were realized. The new material showed some potential for splitting hydrogen peroxide to oxygen and thus may be explored for energy application in addition to its use as a water quality monitoring probe.
Introduction Carbon materials (CMs) are essential for water purification,[1] molecular separation, water splitting, energy storage, disease treatment, and diagnosis due to their wide range of properties such as electrical and thermal conductivities, light absorption and emission, mesoporosity, tunable surfaces, and mechanical strength. The CMs of significant interest include the activated carbon, graphite, diamond, carbon nanotubes, carbon nanodots, and graphene oxides. These materials are consistently emerging as better alternatives for various functions such as bioimaging, energy storage, photocatalysis, sensing, water purification, anti-electromagnetic interference, and microwave pollution absorption.[2–13] Owing to their relatively nontoxicity and biocompatibility, certain fluorescent CMs, such as carbon nanotubes and carbon nanodots, are currently being considered better substitutes for bioimaging than the toxic metalcontaining conventional photoluminescent semiconductorbased quantum dots.[14] In addition, due to their small size to volume ratio, CMs exhibit good catalytic and sensing properties and thus are found very useful in the detection and removal of toxic substances in water, biological, and air environments. Furthermore, CMs can be produced via low-cost procedures from readily available waste materials such as agricultural leftovers,[14] oil waste, plastics, and wax. Although the sensing capabilities of CMs are improving on a daily basis, their performance as a sensor is still far from the ideal. Thus, many CMs are currently being fused with other materials such as metal oxides, polymers, and supramolecular molecules such as porphyrins to improve their sensing proficiencies.[2,8,13]
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