Fabrication and characterization of multilayered nanoporous platinum films deposited by electroplating and nonionic surfactant molds

Multilayered nanoporous Pt (NPt) thin film on silicon substrate was newly fabricated and characterized for highly sensitive electrochemical sensor applications. The multi-layered NPt films were fabricated by using nonionic surfactant and electroplating technique. The surface morphologies of the fabricated multilayered NPt films (single, double, and triple layer) were then characterized using field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM). The fabricated NPts films exhibited highly dense nanopores with irregularly arranged grain boundaries. Their thicknesses were 0.7, 0.77, and 1 μm, which were highly affected by the structural geometries of the bottom layer. The electrochemical properties of the as-synthesized multilayered NPt films were tested in 1 M sulfuric acid and phosphate buffered saline (PBS, pH 7.4) with different concentrations of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2). The fabricated NPt films on silicon substrate exhibited highly improved electrochemical roughness factors (RF) of 151.45, 901.35, and 1277.7 (mean values), respectively. As expected, they exhibited high sensitivities of 279.6, 337.5, and 517.8 μA mM−1 cm−2 in H2O2 concentrations up to 7 mM, respectively, due to extremely enlarged specific surface activation area.