Carbon nanospikes have better electrochemical properties than carbon nanotubes due to greater surface roughness and defect sites

Carbon nanomaterials are used to improve electrodes for neurotransmitter detection, but what properties are important for maximizing those effects? In this work, we compare a newer form of graphene, carbon nanospikes (CNSs), with carbon nanotubes (CNTs) grown on wires and carbon fibers (CFs). CNS el...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Carbon (New York) 2019-12, Vol.155 (C), p.250-257
Main Authors: Cao, Qun, Hensley, Dale K., Lavrik, Nickolay V., Venton, B. Jill
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Carbon
Carbon fibers
Carbon nanotubes
Charge transfer
Dopamine
Electrochemical analysis
Electrochemistry
Electrodes
Electron transfer
Glassy carbon
Graphene
Low resistance
MATERIALS SCIENCE
Nanomaterials
Nanotubes
Neurotransmitters
Properties (attributes)
Substrates
Surface roughness
Voltammetry
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Carbon nanomaterials are used to improve electrodes for neurotransmitter detection, but what properties are important for maximizing those effects? In this work, we compare a newer form of graphene, carbon nanospikes (CNSs), with carbon nanotubes (CNTs) grown on wires and carbon fibers (CFs). CNS electrodes have a short, dense, defect-filled surface that produces remarkable electrochemical properties, much better than CNTs or CFs. The CNS surface roughness is 5.5 times greater than glassy carbon, while CNTs enhance roughness only 1.8-fold. D/G ratios are higher for CNS electrodes than CNT electrodes, an indication of more defect sites. For cyclic voltammetry of dopamine and ferricyanide, CNSs have both higher currents and smaller ΔEp values than CNTs and CFs. CNS electrodes also have a very low resistance to charge transfer. With fast-scan cyclic voltammetry (FSCV), CNS electrodes have enhanced current density for dopamine and cationic neurotransmitters due to increased adsorption to edge plane sites. This study establishes that not all carbon nanomaterials are equally advantageous for dopamine electrochemistry, but that short, dense nanomaterials that add defect sites provide improved current and electron transfer. CNSs are simple to mass fabricate on a variety of substrates and thus could be a favorable material for neurotransmitter sensing. [Display omitted]
ISSN:0008-6223
1873-3891
DOI:10.1016/j.carbon.2019.08.064