The MIL-88A-Derived Fe(3)O(4)-Carbon Hierarchical Nanocomposites for Electrochemical Sensing

Metal or metal oxides/carbon nanocomposites with hierarchical superstructures have become one of the most promising functional materials in sensor, catalysis, energy conversion, etc. In this work, novel hierarchical Fe(3)O(4)/carbon superstructures have been fabricated based on metal-organic frameworks (MOFs)-derived method. Three kinds of Fe-MOFs (MIL-88A) with different morphologies were prepared beforehand as templates, and then pyrolyzed to fabricate the corresponding novel hierarchical Fe(3)O(4)/carbon superstructures. The systematic studies on the thermal decomposition process of the three kinds of MIL-88A and the effect of template morphology on the products were carried out in detail. Scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, X-ray powder diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and thermal analysis were employed to investigate the hierarchical Fe(3)O(4)/carbon superstructures. Based on these resulted hierarchical Fe(3)O(4)/carbon superstructures, a novel and sensitive nonenzymatic N-acetyl cysteine sensor was developed. The porous and hierarchical superstructures and large surface area of the as-formed Fe(3)O(4)/carbon superstructures eventually contributed to the good electrocatalytic activity of the prepared sensor towards the oxidation of N-acetyl cysteine. The proposed preparation method of the hierarchical Fe(3)O(4)/carbon superstructures is simple, efficient, cheap and easy to mass production. It might open up a new way for hierarchical superstructures preparation.