Facile synthesis of monodisperse Ag@C@Ag core-double shell spheres for application in the simultaneous sensing of thymol and phenol

simple coupled synthesis and encapsulation route was developed to fabricate monodisperse, uniform Ag@C@Ag core-shell structured nanocomposites with excellent electrochemical and catalytic properties, in which Ag nanoparticles were first encapsulated in a carbonaceous shell through the catalyzed dehydration of glucose under hydrothermal conditions, and then the surface-activated Ag@C spheres were subsequently used to accumulate [Ag(NH3)(2)](+) or Ag+ ions through electrostatic attraction to anchor the Ag coating. The as-prepared nanocomposites were demonstrated to have a great potential for the simultaneous multiplexed detection of thymol and phenol, and exhibited high sensitivity and good reproducibility. In addition, the practical analytical application of the sensing platform was assessed by the determination of thymol and phenol in real honey samples, and satisfactory results were achieved.