Study of a novel fabrication method of 3D Ag-based nanoporous structures for electrochemical detection

• Published in: Journal of electroanalytical chemistry (Lausanne, Switzerland) Switzerland), 2021-02, Vol.882, p.114990, Article 114990
• Main Authors: Tian, Yu, Zhao, Jie, Han, Dongxue, Zhao, Shifan, Zhang, Yuanwei, Cui, Guofeng
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Acetaminophen; Alternating current; Biomolecules; Chemical sensors; Correlation coefficients; Dopamine; Electrochemical analysis; Electrochemical sensor; Electrodes; Ion exchange; Morphology; Nanochannels; Pseudo-reference electrode; Silver chloride; Silver-based nanoporous structure
• ISSN: 1572-6657; 1873-2569
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jelechem.2021.114990

In this paper, a novel two-step facile strategy was first proposed to fabricate nanoporous Ag (NP-Ag) and nanoporous Ag/AgCl (NP-Ag/AgCl) materials to simplify manufacturing procedure, shorten processing time, and optimize experiment condition. Co-electrodeposition of AgSn alloy on the interdigital gold electrode (IGE) and subsequent electrochemical dealloying in HCl solution by applying different potentials. The surface morphologies as well as the electrochemical characterizations of the fabricated NP-Ag and NP-Ag/AgCl IGEs were investigated. The fabricated NP-Ag IGEs were evaluated as biomolecules simultaneous electrochemical sensors for determination of acetaminophen (AC) and dopamine (DA). In addition, the performance of the fabricated NP-Ag/AgCl IGEs, as micro-size reference electrodes, were studied. The NP-Ag electrodes were found promising linear current response to AC (correlation coefficient, R2 = 0.9906) and DA (correlation coefficient, R2 = 0.9961), under the concentration ranges from 0.5 to 290 μM and 0.25 to 500 μM, respectively. Moreover, the fabricated NP-Ag/AgCl IGEs were possessed of enhanced stability and miniature size as pseudo-reference electrodes (p-REs) in contrast with commercial p-REs, which benefiting from abundant ion-exchange sites and quantities of nanochannels on the sponge-like surface. Results demonstrated the innovative surface modification of as-synthesized NP-Ag and NP-Ag/AgCl have positive implication for massive production of nanoporous Ag-based materials and the utilization of prospective point-of-care testing. [Display omitted] •A facile method of fabricating Ag-based porous structured materials was proposed.•The whole synthetic operation only takes 10 to 15 mins.•Nanoporous Ag shows enhanced properties for biomolecules detection.•Nanoporous Ag/AgCl presented excellent capability as a reference electrode.