Zinc porphyrin–fullerene derivative noncovalently functionalized graphene hybrid as interfacial material for electrocatalytic application

• A novel electrochemical sensor based on fullerene derivative and graphene hybrid.
• Fullerene derivative noncovalently functionalized graphene to obtain the hybrid.
• The sensor based on the hybrid possesses high sensitivity and stability.
• The study paves a new avenue for fabricating non-enzymatic electrochemical sensor.

In this paper, a p-methoxy zinc porphyrin-fullerene derivative (ZnPp-C60) noncovalently functionalized electrochemically reduced graphene oxide (ERGO) hybrid (ERGO@ZnPp-C60) was facilely obtained by π–π stacking interaction between zinc porphyrin ring and ERGO. The hybrid was characterized by scanning electron microscope (SEM), electrochemistry, UV–vis spectra, and density functional theory (DFT), which demonstrated that the presence of ERGO caused more redox reversibility and higher electrocatalytic activity of ZnPp-C60. By using their synergistic effects of the remarkable mechanical, electrical, catalytic, and structural properties, ERGO@ZnPp-C60 incorporated in tetraoctylammonium bromide (TOAB) film was modified on the glassy carbon electrode (GCE) to construct a novel non-enzymatic electrochemical sensor. The sensor exhibited enhancing response sensitivity for the electrocatalyic reduction of hydrogen peroxide with a high sensitivity of 451.3 μA mM−1 and a limit of detection (LOD) as low as 0.27 μM. The sensitivity is 2-fold larger than that of TOAB/ZnPp-C60/GCE in the absence of ERGO. Although a high detecting sensitivity of 162.5 μA mM−1 for electrocatalytic oxidation of nitrite could be also obtained on the presented sensor, the sensitivity is lower than that of TOAB/ZnPp-C60/GCE (233.9 μA mM−1) due to the change in the structure of ZnPp-C60 and the electronic interactions between GO and ZnPp-C60. Even though, the smart hybrid (ERGO@ZnPp-C60) possesses obvious advantage for the fabrication of non-enzymatic electrochemical sensor and paves a new avenue for constructing C60 derivative and graphene based materials.

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