Efficient hydroquinone sensor development based on Co3O4 nanoparticle

In this work, ethylene-urea was employed as a novel fuel for the nanocrystalline Co3O4 spinel synthesis via the solution combustion route. The synthesized NPs have been characterized by using various tools including XRD, FT-IR, FE-SEM, TEM, and XPS. The results obtained clearly indicated that the prepared NPs composed of Co3O4 spinel as a pure phase with crystallite size of 26.0 nm. Moreover, these Co3O4 NPs possess a welded polygonal morphology (tetragons, pentagons, and hexagons). The fabrication of electrochemical sensor for selective to hydroquinone (HQ) was performed by coating of glassy carbon electrode (GCE) with Co3O4 NPs. It is formed a very thin uniform layer onto GCE, where the current was measured by current-voltage (I-V) method. To execute the sensor analytical parameter, a calibration curve from the relation of current vs. concentration of HQ was plotted. It was found to be linear (r(2)=0.9983) over a concentration range known as a linear dynamic range (0.1 nM similar to 0.1 mM). The slope of the resulting calibration curve was used to measure the sensitivity (9.0189 mu A mu M(-1)cm(-2)) as well as detection limit (10.53 +/- 0.53 pM) of HQ chemical sensor based on Co3O4 NPs/binder/ GCE. It is introduced a new route for the sensitive and selective sensor based on metal oxides by the electrochemical method for the safety of environmental and healthcare safety in broad scales.