title: In situ synthesis of gold nanoparticles on porous polyacrylonitrile nanofibers for sensing applications.
abstract: A simple and cost-effective method was reported to synthesize small size (6 nm) gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) on polyacrylonitrile (PAN) electrospun nanofibers (AuNPs/PAN). The formation of AuNPs is attributed to the in situ reduction of Au(III) to Au(0) by 4-(dimethylamino)benzaldehyde doped in the PAN nanofibers. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and cyclic voltammetry (CV) confirmed that the AuNPs/PAN nanofibers showed good conductivity. The AuNPs/PAN nanofibers were used to immobilize tris(2,2'-bipyridyl)ruthenium(II) ions (Ru(bpy)(3)(2+)) to form an electrochemiluminescence (ECL) sensor. The AuNPs on the PAN nanofibers exhibited an excellent catalytic effect on the ECL of Ru(bpy)(3)(2+) which could be employed to detect low concentrations of phenolic compounds. The linear response range of the ECL sensor to hydroquinone is 0.55-37 μM with limit of detection of 80 nM (S/N = 3). This sensor has been successfully applied to determine the hydroquinone content in photographic developer samples. Our work provides a very simple and cost-effective method to synthesize AuNPs on polymer nanofibers which shows great potential in the field of electrocatalysis and chemo/biosensors.
authors.affiliation: College of Chemistry, Sichuan University, 29 Wangjiang Road, Chengdu, 610064, China.
authors.forename: Zhen
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Cuisong
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: Baozhan
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Zheng
authors.forename: Lei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Qian
authors.forename: Yan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Mo
authors.forename: Fulian
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Luo
authors.forename: Yalin
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Shi
authors.forename: Martin M F
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Choi
authors.forename: Dan
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Xiao