Enhanced electron transfer mediated detection of hydrogen peroxide using a silver nanoparticle–reduced graphene oxide–polyaniline fabricated electrochemical sensor

The current study aims at the development of an electrochemical sensor based on a silver nanoparticle–reduced graphene oxide–polyaniline (AgNPs–rGO–PANI) nanocomposite for the sensitive and selective detection of hydrogen peroxide (H(2)O(2)). The nanocomposite was fabricated by simple in situ synthesis of PANI at the surface of rGO sheet which was followed by stirring with AEC biosynthesized AgNPs to form a nanocomposite. The AgNPs, GO, rGO, PANI, rGO–PANI, and AgNPs–rGO–PANI nanocomposite and their interaction were studied by UV-vis, FTIR, XRD, SEM, EDX and XPS analysis. AgNPs–rGO–PANI nanocomposite was loaded (0.5 mg cm(−2)) on a glassy carbon electrode (GCE) where the active surface area was maintained at 0.2 cm(2) for investigation of the electrochemical properties. It was found that AgNPs–rGO–PANI–GCE had high sensitivity towards the reduction of H(2)O(2) than AgNPs–rGO which occurred at −0.4 V vs. SCE due to the presence of PANI (AgNPs have direct electronic interaction with N atom of the PANI backbone) which enhanced the rate of transfer of electron during the electrochemical reduction of H(2)O(2). The calibration plots of H(2)O(2) electrochemical detection was established in the range of 0.01 μM to 1000 μM (R(2) = 0.99) with a detection limit of 50 nM, the response time of about 5 s at a signal-to-noise ratio (S/N = 3). The sensitivity was calculated as 14.7 μA mM(−1) cm(−2) which indicated a significant potential as a non-enzymatic H(2)O(2) sensor.