Biphasic nickel phosphide nanosheets: Self-supported electrocatalyst for sensitive and selective electrochemical H2O2 detection and its practical applications in blood and living cells

Electrochemical nonenzymatic detection has received enormous attentions from analytic chemistry communities. However, the complicated design and fabrication procedures of electrocatalysts hinder its practical application. Pursing of simple and direct synthesis route is vital and desirable to minimize the discrepancy between electrodes, and is essential for implementing of reliable detection. Herein, we propose a one-step synthesis strategy for direct phosphidation of nickel foam (NF) to fabricate effective biphasic nickel phosphide nanosheets (BNPNS) electrocatalyst. This self-supported BNPNS electrocatalyst realizes sensitive and selective electrochemical nonenzymatic detection of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) with wide concentration regions. Benefiting from its high sensitivity, low detection limit, wide sensing range, and good reproducibility, repeatability, stability, the BNPNS has been successfully employed to detect H2O2 in practical samples of human blood and living cells. The simple and straightforward preparation process of BNPNS opens up a new avenue for practical applications of non-noble metal based electrocatalysts in analytical chemistry field for reliable detections. (c) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.