Spindles shaped ZnO modified glassy carbon electrode for the selective monitoring of piperidine

• ZnO spindles are synthesized by low temperature hydrothermal method.
• ZnO spindles are employed to modify the GCE for fabricating piperidine chemical sensor.
• High sensitivity of ~237.7 µA mM−1 cm−2 is achieved.
• Modified GCE presents good electrocatalytic properties.

The unique morphology of spindle shaped zinc oxide (ZnO) was synthesized by the low temperature hydrothermal method and employed as electron mediator to fabricate chemical sensor for the selective monitoring of piperidine. The synthesized ZnO spindles possessed an average length of ~1–2 µm. The quality and nature of the synthesized ZnO spindles were extensively studied by analyzing the crystalline, optical and structural characterizations. The synthesized ZnO spindles modified glassy carbon electrode (GCE) based piperidine chemical sensor exhibited the high sensitivity of ~237.7 µA mM−1 cm−2 and good linearity in the range of 12.5 µM–0.1 mM with limit of detection (LOD) of ~9.4 µM.