Toward the Development of Disposable Electrodes Based on Holmium Orthovanadate/f-Boron Nitride: Impacts and Electrochemical Performances of Emerging Inorganic Contaminants

Rare-earth metal orthovanadates have great technological relevance in the family of rare-earth compounds owing to their excellent physical and chemical properties. A significant number of studies have been carried out on this class of compounds to exploit their electrochemical properties in virtue of variable oxidation states. But holmium vanadate (HoV) and its morphology selective synthesis have not been considered, which can have potential applications similar to the rest of the family. In this work, we propose the synthesis of superior architectures of HoV with a functionalized boron nitride (f-BN) nanocomposite. The synergistic effect between HoV and f-BN can have a positive effect on the physical characteristics of the nanocomposite, which can be explored for its electrochemical capacity. Here, HoV incorporated with f-BN is explored for the electrochemical detection of He2+ ions, which is known for its toxicity-induced environmental health hazards. The structural and compositional revelation reveals higher conductivity and faster electron transfer in the composite, which facilitates a wide working range (0.02-53.8 and 64.73-295.4 mu M), low limit of detection (5 nM), higher sensitivity (66.6 mu A mu M-1 cm(-2)), good selectivity over 10-fold higher concentration of other interfering compounds compared to He2+ ion concentration, and good cycles stability (30 segments) toward He2+ ion detection. This also envisages the morphology selective synthesis and utilization of other rare-earth metals, whose electrochemical capacities are unexplored.

Automated summary

This study proposes the synthesis of a superior architecture of HoV with a functionalized boron nitride (f-BN) nanocomposite for electrochemical detection of He2+ ions. The structural and compositional revelation reveals higher conductivity and faster electron transfer in the composite, resulting in a wide working range, low detection limit, higher sensitivity, and good cycles stability towards He2+ ion detection. This work also highlights the potential for morphology selective synthesis and utilization of other rare-earth metals with unexplored electrochemical capacities.