Rapidly synthesized polyethylene glycol coated cadmium sulphide (CdS) nanoparticles as potential scaffold for highly sensitive and selective lethal cyanide ion sensor

Herein, we report the facile and highly rapid synthesis, characterizations and lethal cyanide sensing applications of polyethylene glycol (PEG) coated cadmium sulphide (CdS) nanoparticles (P-CdS NPs). The P-CdS NPs were synthesized by simple microwave technique and characterized by different techniques which revealed that the nanoparticles are monodisperse spherical shaped and grown in high-density. The synthesized P-CdS NPs were used as efficient electron mediator to fabricate highly sensitive and sensitive chemical sensor. The sensing responses of P-CdS NPs anchored on gold electrode towards cyanide ion have been monitored by three different techniques i.e. differential pulse voltammetry (DPV), cyclic voltammetry (CV) and amperometry. The limits of detection (LOD) of cyanide ions with DPV, CV and amperometry have been found to be ∼9.1 × 10−9, 4.2 × 10−6 and 0.9 × 10−7 M, respectively. The detailed sensing results revealed that the DPV is the best method for the detection of cyanide ion using P-CdS NPs. In addition to this, the system has been found to be quite selective for cyanide ion as it gives negligible response towards other anions.