Deployment of aligned ZnO nanorod with distinctive porous morphology: Potential scaffold for the detection of p-nitrophenylamine

• Aligned nanoporous ZnO NRs on FTO glass are grown.
• Aligned nanoporous ZnO NRs is utilized for fabricating the highly sensitive p-nitrophenylamine chemical sensor.
• Sensor shows a very high sensitivity of ∼184.26 μA. mM−1 cm−2.
• A reasonable detection limit of ∼53.7 μM with correlation coefficient of ∼0.97569 is observed.

The low temperature solution method was employed to synthesize aligned nanoporous zinc oxide (ZnO) nanorods (NRs) on fluorine doped tin oxide (FTO) glass and applied as an electron mediator for the fabrication of high-sensitive chemical sensor towards the detection of p-nitrophenylamine (p-NPA) in an aqueous medium. Well-crystalline ZnO nanorods with nanoporous morphology were arranged vertically on the FTO substrate. The aligned nanoporous ZnO NRs thin film presented the good aspect ratio of Zn and O elements in terms of atomic weight percentage. The cyclovoltametry and amperometry analysis deduced the rapid electrocatalytic activity of aligned nanoporous ZnO NRs electrode towards p-NPA chemical. The aligned nanoporous ZnO NRs electrode was used to fabricate p-NPA chemical sensor which showed significantly high and reproducible sensitivity of ∼184.26 μA mM−1 cm−2 with a short response time ≥8 s. The fabricated p-NPA chemical sensor exhibited reasonable detection limit of ∼53.7 μM and good linearity in the range of 5–20 μM with the correlation efficient of R = ∼0.97569.

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