A Highly-Sensitive Picric Acid Chemical Sensor Based on ZnO Nanopeanuts

Abstract

Herein, we report a facile synthesis, characterization, and electrochemical sensing application of ZnO nanopeanuts synthesized by a simple aqueous solution process and characterized by various techniques in order to confirm the compositional, morphological, structural, crystalline phase, and optical properties of the synthesized material. The detailed characterizations revealed that the synthesized material possesses a peanut-shaped morphology, dense growth, and a wurtzite hexagonal phase along with good crystal and optical properties. Further, to ascertain the useful properties of the synthesized ZnO nanopeanut as an excellent electron mediator, electrochemical sensors were fabricated based on the form of a screen printed electrode (SPE). Electrochemical and current-voltage characteristics were studied for the determination of picric acid sensing characteristics. The electrochemical sensor fabricated based on the SPE technique exhibited a reproducible and reliable sensitivity of ~1.2 μA/mM (9.23 μA·mM−1·cm−2), a lower limit of detection at 7.8 µM, a regression coefficient (R2) of 0.94, and good linearity over the 0.0078 mM to 10.0 mM concentration range. In addition, the sensor response was also tested using simple I-V techniques, wherein a sensitivity of 493.64 μA·mM−1·cm−2, an experimental Limit of detection (LOD) of 0.125 mM, and a linear dynamic range (LDR) of 1.0 mM–5.0 mM were observed for the fabricated picric acid sensor.

Chemical Sensing Applications of ZnO Nanomaterials

“…Their adverse effects at minute concentrations have produced undesirable consequences for flora and fauna. Scientists have prepared a large number of metal oxide-based chemical sensors due to their potential properties of easy preparation with low processing costs and eco-friendly nature [ 32 ]. Among the different types of metal oxide materials, ZnO is extensively employed for the fabrication of sensors for perilous chemicals.…”

A New Compound for Sequential Sensing of Picric Acid and Aliphatic Amines: Physicochemical Details and Construction of Molecular Logic Gates

“…[42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56] Zinc oxide nanomaterials and fluorescent quantum dots were also helpful in PA detection. [57,58] The fluorescent outputs due to the sensing mechanisms were effectively used to prepare logic based devices in some cases. [59,60] Similarly, there are reports on the detection of aliphatic amines (AAs) with low LODs in various samples using different techniques.…”

Quantification of picric acid on nanosphere polypyrrole modified electrode by stripping voltammetric method

“…In the past decades, various approaches have been explored to quantify the picric acid effluents, such as fluorimetry, chemical methods, capillary electrophoresis and spectrophotometry [1][2][3][4][5]. Venkatramaiah et al, have successfully developed a fluorescent chemosensor based on fluoranthene for the detection of picric acid, in which static fluorescence quenching is the dominant process by intercalative interactions between fluoranthene and nitroaromatics [6].…”