Detection of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) using a colorimetric sensor based on cellulose nanowhiskers and silver nanoparticles

Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) is an important compound for several industrial sectors, but it becomes harmful to human health under high concentrations. Thus, the development of simple, low cost and fast analytical methods capable to detect and monitor H2O2 is fundamentally important. In the present study, we report a simple route for synthesizing silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) in the presence of a nanostructured polysaccharide (cellulose nanowhiskers) to produce a hybrid material, which was employed as a colorimetric probe for H2O2 detection. Our results revealed that AgNPs tend to experience catalytic decomposition when exposed to H2O2, causing a decrease of AgNPs absorption band at 410 nm in accordance with H2O2 concentration. This decrease was linearly dependent on H2O2 concentration (in the ranges 0.01-30 mu M and 60-600 mu M), yielding limits of detection of 0.014 mu M and 112 mu M, respectively. The easy-to-interpret H2O2 sensor also proved to be suitable for real samples analysis even in the presence of other interfering substances.