IEEE Sensors Journal | 2019
One-Pot Electrochemical Synthesis of Lead Oxide- Electrochemically Reduced Graphene Oxide Nanostructures and Their Electrocatalytic Applications
Abstract
In this paper, a new electrochemical method for the cathodic electrodeposition of lead oxide-electrochemically reduced graphene oxide (PbO-ERGO) from an aqueous solution was carried out in one-pot in the same solution containing Pb<sup>2+</sup> and graphene oxide, leading to the direct formation of crystalline thin films at near-room temperature. XRD was employed to determine the crystallinity index of the PbO-ERGO nanostructures. SEM, XPS, EDS, and UV–visible spectroscopy techniques were employed to analyze the morphological, structural, and optical characteristics of the composite materials. Owing to the rapid charge transport in the composite materials of PbO-ERGO, rapid, and uniform photocurrent responses were observed. In addition, the PbO-ERGO composite electrode exhibited a 40 and 130 fold increase in the photocatalytic performance compared to PbO and ERGO electrodes, respectively. Then, the nanocomposite-modified electrode was applied for the non-enzymatic sensing of H<sub>2</sub>O<sub>2</sub>. A linear amperometric response to H<sub>2</sub>O<sub>2</sub> was observed at concentrations in the range from <inline-formula> <tex-math notation= LaTeX >$1 \\times 10^{-5}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> to <inline-formula> <tex-math notation= LaTeX >$10\\times 10^{-3}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> mol L<sup>−1</sup>. The sensitivity and detection limit of the PbO-ERGO electrode were estimated as <inline-formula> <tex-math notation= LaTeX >$2.26~\\mu \\text{A}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> mM<sup>−1</sup> cm<sup>−2</sup> and <inline-formula> <tex-math notation= LaTeX >$2\\times 10^{-7}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> mol L<sup>−1</sup>, respectively, at a signal-to-noise ratio of 3.0.