Self-Terminated Electroless Deposition of Surfactant-Free and Monodispersed Pt Nanoparticles on Carbon Fiber Microelectrodes for Sensitive Detection of H2O2 Released from Living Cells

We report a self-terminated electroless deposition method to prepare surfactant-free and monodispersed Pt nano-particle (NP)-modified carbon fiber microelectrodes (Pt NP/CFEs) for electrochemical detection of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) released from living cells. The surfactant-free and monodispersed Pt NPs with a uniform size of 65 nm are spontaneously deposited on a CFE surface by immersing an exposed carbon fiber (CF) of CFE in the PtCl42- solution, in which an exposed CF can be used as the reducing agent and stabilizer. A self-terminated electroless deposition method is demonstrated, in which the density and size of Pt NPs on a CFE surface do not increase when the reaction time increases from 20 to 60 min. The self-terminated electroless deposition process not only can effectively avoid any manual electrode modification and thus largely minimize person-to-person and electrode-to-electrode deviations but also can avoid the use of any extra reductant or surfactant in the fabrication process. Therefore, Pt NPs/CFEs, with good reproducibility and sensitivity, not only exhibit high electrocatalytic activity toward the oxidation of H2O2 but also maintain the spatial resolution of CFEs. Moreover, Pt NPs/CFEs can detect H2O2 with a wide linear range of 0.5-80 mu M and a low detection limit of 0.17 mu M and then can be successfully applied in the monitoring of H2O2 released from RAW 264.7 cells. The self-terminated electroless deposition method can also be extended to selectively prepare other metal NP-modified CFEs, such as Au NPs/CFEs or Ag NPs/CFEs, by choosing the metal ions with higher reduction potential as precursors. This work provides a simple, straightforward, and general method for the preparation of small, surfactant-free, and monodispersed metal NP-modified CFEs with high sensitivity, reproducibility, and spatial resolution.

Automated summary

The study introduces a self-terminated electroless deposition method to prepare surfactant-free and monodispersed Pt nano-particle-modified carbon fiber microelectrodes for the detection of hydrogen peroxide released from living cells. This method ensures high reproducibility and minimizes person-to-person and electrode-to-electrode variations. Additionally, the Pt nano-particles/CFEs exhibit good sensitivity and electrocatalytic activity towards H2O2 oxidation, making them suitable for cellular H2O2 monitoring.