Bismuth–silver bimetallic nanosensor application for the voltammetric analysis of dust and soil samples

• A novel bismuth–silver nanosensor was assembled on a glassy carbon platform.
• The bismuth–silver nanosensor was applied using differential pulse adsorptive stripping voltammetry.
• The nanosensor is highly sensitive and selective for Pt(II), Pd(II) and Rh(III) determination.
• Favourable detection limits in the nanoscale range were obtained for soils and dust samples.

A sensitive adsorptive stripping voltammetric procedure for palladium, platinum and rhodium determination was developed in the presence of dimethylglyoxime (DMG) as the chelating agent at a glassy carbon electrode coated with bismuth–silver bimetallic nanoparticles. The nanosensor further allowed the adsorptive stripping voltammetric detection of platinum group metals without oxygen removal in solution. In this study the factors that influence the stripping performance such as composition of supporting electrolyte, DMG concentration, deposition potential and time studies, and pH have been investigated and optimised. The bismuth–silver bimetallic nanosensor was used as the working electrode with 0.2 M acetate buffer (pH = 4.7) solution as the supporting electrolyte. The differential pulse adsorptive stripping peak current signal was linear from 0.2 to 1.0 ng L−1 (n = 3) range (60 s deposition), with limit of detections for Pd (0.19 ng L−1), Pt (0.20 ng L−1), Rh (0.22 ng L−1), respectively. Good reproducibility with relative standard deviation (RSD) of 4.61% for Pd(II), 5.16% for Pt(II) and 5.27% for Rh(III) (n = 10), for the applied sensor was also obtained.

Figure optionsDownload as PowerPoint slide