Synthesis of silver nanoparticle at a gas/liquid interface in the presence of silver seeds and its application for electrochemical sensing

•AgNPs were synthesized at a gas/liquid interface in the presence of silver seeds.•AgNPs have a fairly narrow nanoparticle size distribution.•AgNPs were applied to fabricate a non-enzymatic sensor.•The sensor exhibits remarkable catalytic performance for H2O2 detection.

Silver nanoparticles were synthesized by reducing [Ag(NH3)2]+ at a gas/liquid interface in the presence of silver seeds. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) observations reveal that the size of these silver nanoparticles is around 35–40 nm with the average particle size of 37 nm. The silver nanoparticles were applied for the electrochemical sensor and electrochemical investigations indicate that the nanoparticles possess an excellent performance toward H2O2. The linear range is estimated to be from 5.0 μM to 4.0 mM with a low detection limit of 1.7 μM, a sensitivity of 166.7 μA mM−1 cm−2 and a response time of 3 s. Additionally, the sensor exhibits good anti-interference.

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