Ultrasonic-electrodeposition of gold–platinum alloy nanoparticles on multi-walled carbon nanotubes – ionic liquid composite film and their electrocatalysis towards the oxidation of nitrite

We report here for the first time on the electrochemical co-deposition of gold–platinum (AuPt) nanoparticles on multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNT) – ionic liquid (i.e. trihexyltetradecylphosphonium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide, [P6,6,6,14][NTf2]) composite surface in ultrasonic field. The obtained AuPt nanoparticles were characterized by scanning electron microscope, X-ray diffraction and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. It was found that they were well-dispersed on the composite surface, with particle size about 10 nm. Furthermore, they exhibited alloy features. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and voltammetric experiments showed that the resulted AuPt-MWNT-[P6,6,6,14][NTf2] modified electrode possessed rather small electron transfer resistance and good catalytic activity towards nitrite oxidation. Under the optimized conditions, the oxidation current of nitrite was linear to its concentration in the range of 5–200 nM and the detection limit was down to 1.0 nM (S/N = 3).