title: Rapid in situ detection of ultratrace 2,4-dinitrotoluene solids by a sandwiched paper-like electrochemical sensor.
abstract: This work reported the rapid in situ detection of ultratrace 2,4-dinitrotoluene (DNT) solids on various substrates by a sandwiched paper-like electrochemical sensor. The sensor, prepared by a simple electroless deposition method without using special instruments, possessed a unique thin-film structure of an insulated polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) membrane in between two gold (Au) conducting layers. The resulting gold-PVDF sandwich (GPVDFS) array exhibited excellent flexibility, porosity and electrochemical performance as a highly integrated dual-electrode sensor platform. The infiltration of nonvolatile ionic liquid (IL) electrolytes containing ferrocene (Fc) into the GPVDFS array produced a paper-like electrochemical sensor, which can directly detect ultratrace DNT solids on various substrate surfaces (e.g., plant leaves, gloves and metal knives) with detection limit as low as 0.33 ng/mm(2). The critical role of Fc in the detection of DNT at this dual-electrode sensor was explored. The compensating electrochemical oxidation of Fc at the counter/reference electrode was found to be essential to the reduction of DNT at the working electrode when IL electrolytes were employed. The present work thus demonstrated the promising applications of paper-based porous electrode arrays in developing IL-based electrochemical sensors for the in situ detection of analyte solids in complicated environments.
authors: Key Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry for Biology and Medicine (Ministry of Education), College of Chemistry and Molecular Sciences, Wuhan University , Wuhan 430072, China.
authors: Juan
authors: J
authors: Wang
authors: Wei
authors: W
authors: Jin
authors: Xing
authors: X
authors: Zhang
authors: Chengguo
authors: C
authors: Hu
authors: Qingying
authors: Q
authors: Luo
authors: Yi
authors: Y
authors: Lin
authors: Shengshui
authors: S
authors: Hu
mesh_terms: D004136:Dinitrobenzenes / Q000032:analysis*; D055664:Electrochemical Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation*; D004566:Electrodes; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000295:instrumentation; D004867:Equipment Design; D053834:Explosive Agents / Q000032:analysis*; D005296:Ferrous Compounds / Q000737:chemistry; D006046:Gold / Q000737:chemistry*; D052578:Ionic Liquids / Q000737:chemistry; D057230:Limit of Detection; D000075163:Metallocenes; D011145:Polyvinyls / Q000737:chemistry*; D016062:Porosity; D005465:Fluorocarbon Polymers
chemical_list: D004136:Dinitrobenzenes; D053834:Explosive Agents; D005296:Ferrous Compounds; D006046:Gold; D052578:Ionic Liquids; D000075163:Metallocenes; D011145:Polyvinyls; C024865:polyvinylidene fluoride; D005465:Fluorocarbon Polymers; C016403:2,4-dinitrotoluene; C004998:ferrocene