Facile Green Approach for Developing Electrochemically Reduced Graphene Oxide-Embedded Platinum Nanoparticles for Ultrasensitive Detection of Nitric Oxide

Abstract

Nitric oxide (NO) plays a crucial and important role in cellular physiology and also acts as a signaling molecule for cancer in humans. However, conventional detection methods have their own limitations in the detection of NO at low concentrations because of its high reactivity and low lifetime. Herein, we report a strategy to fabricate Pt nanoparticle-decorated electrochemically reduced graphene oxide (erGO)-modified glassy carbon electrode (GCE) with efficiency to detect NO at a low concentration. For this study, Pt@erGO/GCE was fabricated by employing two different sequential methods [first GO reduction followed by Pt electrodeposition (SQ-I) and Pt electrodeposition followed by GO reduction (SQ-II)]. It was interesting to note that the electrocatalytic current response for SQ-I (184 μA) was ∼15 and ∼3 folds higher than those of the bare GCE (11.7 μA) and SQ-II (61.5 μA). The higher current response was mainly attributed to a higher diffusion coefficient and electrochemically active surface area. The proposed SQ-I electrode exhibited a considerably low LOD of 52 nM (S/N = 3) in a linear range of 0.25-40 μM with a short response time (0.7 s). In addition, the practical analytical applicability of the proposed sensor was also verified.