Electrodeposition of Au/Ni nanotubes with highly improved electrochemical performance for non-enzymatic nitrite detection

Au/Ni nanotubes were fabricated on carbon papers through depositing Au nanoparticles on Ni nanotubes to construct nitrite sensors. The structure and constituent characterisation of Au/Ni-60s NTs demonstrated the homogeneous distribution of Au nanoparticles on the Ni nanotubes. Due to the synergy between Ni nanotubes and Au nanoparticles, highly improved nitrite sensing performance was achieved on Au/Ni-60s NTs, which presented a very wide linear range for nitrite detection. Two linear segments have been obtained in the range of 0.4-40000 mu M and 40-130 mM with the detection limit of 0.13 mu M. The sensitivity of 707.14 mu A center dot mM(-1)center dot cm(-2) in lower region and 339.53 mu A center dot mM(-1)center dot cm(-2) in higher region was achieved. Furthermore, the obtained Au/Ni-60s NTs displayed good selectivity and high reliability for nitrite detection in real samples such as milk and peach juice. This investigation may provide a useful route and reference to construct tubular structures for efficient nitrite detection.