Tuning Electrochemical Properties of Silver Nanomaterials by Doping with Boron: Application for Highly Non-enzymatic Sensing of Hydrogen Peroxide

A new type of enzyme-free electrochemical sensor with B Ag nanomaterials as electrocatalyst was designed. The obtained nanomaterials were characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) and powder X-ray diffraction (XRD). The results show that B was successfully doped onto the surface of Ag, which reduces the particle size of Ag nanoparticles and expands the crystal plane spacing of Ag, therefore making Ag display larger specific surface area and faster electron transfer rate. The new enzyme-free electrochemical sensor based on B Ag shows high electrocatalytic activity for the H2O2 reduction and exhibits excellent sensing performance for the electrochemical detection of H2O2 with a wide range from 0.01 mM to 5.55 mM, a high sensitivity of 68.3 mu A.mM(-1)cm(-2) and a low detection limit of 0.04 mu M. This study demonstrated B Ag is a promising sensing material for electrochemical enzyme-free sensors.