Highly sensitive electrochemical determination of 1-naphthol based on high-index facet SnO2 modified electrode

SnO2 nanooctahedron with {2 2 1} high-index facet (HIF) was synthesized by a simple hydrothermal method, and was firstly employed to sensitive electrochemical sensing of a typical organic pollutant, 1-naphthol (1-NAP). The constructed HIF SnO2 modified glassy carbon electrode (HIF SnO2/GCE) possessed advantages of large effective electrode area, high electron transfer rate, and low charge transfer resistance. These improved electrochemical properties allowed the high electrocatalytic performance, high effective active sites and high adsorption capacity of 1-NAP on HIF SnO2/GCE. Cyclic voltammetry (CV) results showed that the electrochemical oxidation of 1-NAP obeyed a two-electron transfer process and the electrode reaction was under diffusion control on HIF SnO2/GCE. By adopting differential pulse voltammetry (DPV), electrochemical detection of 1-NAP was conducted on HIF SnO2/GCE with a limit of detection as low as 5 nM, which was relatively low compared to the literatures. The electrode also illustrated good stability in comparison with those reported value. Satisfactory results were obtained with average recoveries in the range of 99.7–103.6% in the real water sample detection. A promising device for the electrochemical detection of 1-NAP with high sensitivity has therefore been provided.

► It is the first time to employ high-index faceted SnO2 in electrochemical analysis.
► High-index faceted SnO2 has excellent electrochemical activity toward 1-naphthol.
► Highly sensitive determination of 1-naphthol is realized on high-index faceted SnO2.
► The detection limit of 1-naphthol is as low as 5 nM on high-index faceted SnO2.
► Electro-oxidation kinetics for 1-napthol on the novel electrode is discussed.