Synthesis and Characterization of PANI@cellulose Nanocomposite based Electrochemical Sensor for Environmental Remediation

Abstract

In this work, porous CuO-NiO/CA/PANI@Ni-foam sensor electrode has been designed using electospinning of CA/PANI composite on Ni-foam and then drop casting of CuO-NiO nanoparticles for detection of bisphenol A (BPA). 3D nickel foam has been chosen as electrode substrate for the direct growth of CA/PANI since Ni-foam has the advantages of excellent electrical conductivity, low cost, commercial availability, and porous structure, which provides large surface area for synthesis of nanofibers. This direct grown structure of CuO-NiO/CA/PANI@Ni-foam provides exceptional properties, such as reduced resistance, good electron transport, better adhesion stability and the excellent electrical conductivity as compared with non-direct synthesized electrode. Furthermore, a synergetic effect between CuO-NiO/CA/PANI and Ni-foam substrate enables the electrode for excellent sensing behavior towards BPA. The resultant CuO-NiO/CA/PANI@Ni-foam was analyzed using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy. Different electrochemical methods such as cyclic voltammetry, electrochemical impedance and differential pulse voltammetry were used for evaluation of synthesized sensor’s performance against BPA. Under optimal conditions, a linear response was observed against BPA and very low limit of detection as well (LOD=0.6uM). The CuO-NiO/CA/PANI@Ni-foam electrode demonstrated high reproducibility, consistency, and stability when used to detect BPA in water. The synthesized sensor's results demonstrated that it was extremely selective for the detection of BPA, suggesting that it could be useful in environmental based surveillances.