Preparation of novel silver nanoplates/graphene composite and their application in vanillin electrochemical detection

• Hexagonal Ag nanoplates were synthesized by controlling of PVP and trisodium citrate.
• Ag nanoplates/GN composite allowed adsorption and electron transfer of vanillin.
• The composite with good dispersion exhibits enhanced surface area and good catalysis.
• Vanillin on the Ag NPs/GN/GCE shows high sensitivity and selectivity.

Hexagonal Ag nanoplates (NPs) were synthesized by polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) and trisodium citrate (TSC) which selectively absorbed to Ag (100) and Ag (111) surfaces, then were anchored to graphene (GN) to form novel Ag NPs/GN composite. The thickness of Ag NPs is ~ 4 nm and the length is 18–66 nm. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) image shows that the plates are f-c-c crystals containing {111} facets on their two planar surfaces. Zeta potential indicated that the surface of Ag NPs/GN is negatively charged while vanillin is positively charged. Thus Ag NPs/GN modified on glass carbon electrodes (GCE) allowed abundant adsorption for vanillin and electron transfer between vanillin and Ag NPs/GN/GCE. Square wave voltammetry (SWV) results indicated that the over potential on Ag NPs/GN/GCE negatively shifts 52 mV than that on Ag NPs/GCE. Ag NPs/GN with enhanced surface area and good conductivity exhibited an excellent electrocatalytic activity toward the oxidation of vanillin. The corresponding linear range was estimated to be from 2 to 100 μM (R2 = 0.998), and the detection limit is 3.32 × 10− 7 M (S/N = 3). The as-prepared vanillin sensor exhibits good selectivity and potential application in practical vanillin determination.

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