Facile preparation of poly (diallyldimethylammonium chloride) modified reduced graphene oxide for sensitive detection of nitrite

•Facile preparation of PDDA modified rGO within 30 min for nitrite sensing.•PDDA-rGO shows high stability and dispersity in water and large surface area.•Much enhanced catalysis for nitrite oxidation than that of rGO or bare GCE.•Detection of nitrite with performance better than that of graphene based hybrids.

In this communication, a sensitive electrochemical nitrite sensor was constructed based on poly (diallyldimethylammonium chloride) (PDDA) functionalized reduced graphene oxide (PDDA-rGO). The preparation of PDDA-rGO is quite facile, and the PDDA-rGO exhibits good dispersity and high stability in water, together with good conductivity and positive surface charge. All these factors lead to a greatly enhanced catalysis of PDDA-rGO for the nitrite oxidation compared with that of unmodified rGO or bare glassy carbon electrode. Based on PDDA-rGO, an electrochemical nitrite sensor with low overpotential (0.75 V), wide linear range (0.5 μM–2 mM), low detection limit (0.2 μM), good stability and selectivity was fabricated, which exhibited satisfied recovery for detecting nitrite in drinking water.