Cobalt Nanoparticles and Atomic Sites in Nitrogen-Doped Carbon Frameworks for Highly Sensitive Sensing of Hydrogen Peroxide

Zehui Li; Rongji Liu; Cheng Tang; Zhuoya Wang; Xiao Chen; Yuheng Jiang; Chizhong Wang; Yi Yuan; Wenbo Wang; Dongbin Wang; Shuning Chen; Xiaoyuan Zhang; Qiang Zhang; Jingkun Jiang

doi:10.1002/smll.201902860

Cobalt Nanoparticles and Atomic Sites in Nitrogen-Doped Carbon Frameworks for Highly Sensitive Sensing of Hydrogen Peroxide

Small. 2020 Apr;16(15):e1902860. doi: 10.1002/smll.201902860. Epub 2019 Aug 30.

Authors

Zehui Li¹, Rongji Liu², Cheng Tang³, Zhuoya Wang⁴, Xiao Chen³, Yuheng Jiang⁵, Chizhong Wang¹, Yi Yuan⁴, Wenbo Wang², Dongbin Wang¹, Shuning Chen¹, Xiaoyuan Zhang¹, Qiang Zhang³, Jingkun Jiang¹

Affiliations

¹ State Key Joint Laboratory of Environment Simulation and Pollution Control, School of Environment, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, P. R. China.
² CAS Key Laboratory of Green Process and Engineering, Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, P. R. China.
³ Beijing Key Laboratory of Green Chemical Reaction Engineering and Technology, Department of Chemical Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, P. R. China.
⁴ School of Chemical & Environmental Engineering, China University of Mining & Technology, Beijing, Beijing, 100083, P. R. China.
⁵ School of Materials Science & Engineering, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, 100081, P. R. China.

PMID: 31468709
DOI: 10.1002/smll.201902860

Abstract

In situ monitoring of hydrogen peroxide (H₂ O₂ ) during its production process is needed. Here, an electrochemical H₂ O₂ sensor with a wide linear current response range (concentration: 5 × 10^-8 to 5 × 10^-2 m), a low detection limit (32.4 × 10^-9 m), and a high sensitivity (568.47 µA mm^-1 cm^-2 ) is developed. The electrocatalyst of the sensor consists of cobalt nanoparticles and atomic Co-N_x moieties anchored on nitrogen doped carbon nanotube arrays (Co-N/CNT), which is obtained through the pyrolysis of the sandwich-like urea@ZIF-67 complex. More cobalt nanoparticles and atomic Co-N_x as active sites are exposed during pyrolysis, contributing to higher electrocatalytic activity. Moreover, a portable screen-printed electrode sensor is constructed and demonstrated for rapidly detecting (cost ≈40 s) H₂ O₂ produced in microbial fuel cells with only 50 µL solution. Both the synthesis strategy and sensor design can be applied to other energy and environmental fields.

Keywords: H2O2 detection; ZIF-67; amperometric determination; sensors; single atom.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't