Alkalization Intercalation of MXene for Electrochemical Detection of Uranyl Ion

Abstract

Given the good electrochemical performance and excellent irradiation stability of two dimensional transition metal carbides (MXenes), the development of MXene-based electrode materials for radionuclide detection is very promising. In this work, Ti3C2Tx MXene was activated via an alkalization strategy to form K+ intercalated Ti3C2Tx (K-Ti3C2Tx). Then the modified electrode of K-Ti3C2Tx/GCE was prepared on glassy carbon electrode (GCE). Ti3C2Tx and K-Ti3C2Tx were characterized by XRD, SEM and XPS techniques, and the electrochemical detection performance of K-Ti3C2Tx/GCE for trace uranyl ion (UO22+) was further investigated. Cyclic voltammetry (CV) experiments showed that the electrochemical response of K-Ti3C2Tx/GCE modified electrode to UO22+ increased significantly. Under the differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) scanning at pH 4.0, the K-Ti3C2Tx/GCE modified electrode presented a good linear detection relationship for UO22+ in the uranium concentration range of 0.5-10mg/L. The detection limit of this method is 0.083 mg/L (S/N = 3), with decent stability and repeatability.