Electrochemical sensing of phenolics based on copper/cobalt/nitrogen co-doped hollow nanocarbon spheres

In this work, by the self-polymerization/reduction of dopamine with metal ions and sequentially carbonization as well as etching, copper/cobalt/nitrogen co-doped three-dimensional hollow nanocarbon spheres (Cu/Co/NHNCS) novel nanomaterial was prepared successfully by simple processes, and then Cu/Co/N-HNCS was used in electrochemical sensing through using acetaminophen (ACAP), catechol (CC) and hydroquinone (HQ) as phenolic models. The electrochemical behaviors of three phenolics at various modified electrodes (Cu/Co/ N-HNCS, Co/N-HNCS, Cu/N-HNCS and N-HNCS modified electrodes) were investigated; meanwhile, ACAP was selected as a representative target to study thoroughly the sensing performances of Cu/Co/N-HNCS towards phenolics. The results indicate that Cu/Co/N-HNCS electrode can exhibit excellent sensing capabilities owing to the synergistic properties of each component in nanomaterial, and the limit of detection (LOD) for ACAP is 0.039 mu M coupled with wide linear range. The proposed methodologies herein for preparing tri-element doped carbon nanomaterials and detecting phenolics are very simple, low cost and environmentally friendly, thus confirming that they have important potential applications.

Automated summary

The study successfully prepared copper/cobalt/nitrogen co-doped three-dimensional hollow nanocarbon spheres and demonstrated excellent sensing capabilities for phenolics with a wide linear range. The proposed methodologies are simple, low cost, environmentally friendly, and have important potential applications.