Efficient 3D-Silver Flower-like Microstructures for Non-Enzymatic Hydrogen Peroxide (H(2)O(2))  Amperometric Detection

We present an efficient non-enzymatic hydrogen peroxide sensor composed of flower-like silver microstructures. The silver microstructures´ morphology is controlled by adding minute amounts of either succinic or malonic acid as directing agents. Morphologically, silver particles showed ball-like structures in the absence of both directing agents, while the presence of 50 ppm of succinic acid and malonic acid lead to monodisperse chrysanthemum and water-lily flower-like structure, respectively. A higher concentration of succinic acid resulted in a rose flower-like structures. Electrochemically, the rose flower-like silver microstructures exhibited the best performance for H(2)O(2) detection as evaluated by their outstanding electrocatalytic activity (12 times higher) and sensitivity (2.4 mM(−1) cm(−2), 24 times higher) with lower detection limit (0.4 µM, 5 times smaller) together with their excellent H(2)O(2) selectivity compared to that of the ball-shaped structures. Additionally, rose-flower microstructures exhibited excellent long-term stability; 11 and 3 times higher compared to ball- and water-lily structures, respectively. This substantial performance enhancement is attributed to their unique flower-like structure providing a higher number of active surface sites (at least 8 times higher) and a faster detachment rate of in-situ generated oxygen bubbles from their surface.