Ultrasensitive and bifunctional ZnO nanoplates for an oxidative electrochemical and chemical sensor of NO(2): implications towards environmental monitoring of the nitrite reaction

Herein, we focused on the one pot synthesis of ZnO nanoplates (NP edge thickness of ∼100 nm) using a chemical emulsion approach for chemical (direct) and electrochemical (indirect) determination of NO(2). The structural and morphological elucidation of the as-synthesized ZnO NPs was carried out by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive analysis of X-ray (EDAX), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and BET-surface area measurements. The XRD studies of the as-synthesised NPs reveal that ZnO NPs have a Wurtzite type crystal structure with a crystallite size of ∼100 nm. Such ZnO NPs were found to be highly sensitive to NO(2) gas at an operating temperature of 200 °C. Electrocatalytic abilities of these ZnO NPs towards NO(2)/NO(2)(−) were verified through cyclic voltammetry (CV) and linear sweep voltammetry (LSV) using aqueous 1 mM NO(2)(−) (nitrite) in phosphate buffer (pH 7) solution. The results revealed enhanced activity at an onset potential of 0.60 V vs. RCE, achieved at a current density of 0.14 mA cm(−2). These ZnO NPs show selective NO(2) detection in the presence of other reactive species including CO, SO(2), CH(3)OH and Cl(2). These obtained results show that this chemical route is a low cost and promising method for ZnO NPs synthesis and recommend further exploration into its applicability towards tunable electrochemical as well as solid state gas sensing of other toxic gases.