Facile synthesis of trilaminar core-shell Ag@C@Ag nanospheres and their application for H2O2 detection

•A mild synthetic process.•Ag@C@Ag nanospheres with novel trilaminar core-shell structure.•Nonenzymatic sensor modified by Ag@C@Ag nanospheres.•Good performance to H2O2 detection.

Ag@C@Ag trilaminar core-shell nanospheres were prepared at room temperature, using Ag@C nanospheres as templates, polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) as surfactant and mild reducing agent. The synergistic effect among the silver core, carbon shell and silver nanoparticles coated on the surface leads to the good analytical performance of Ag@C@Ag nanospheres in H2O2 detection. The combination of the relative wide linear range (70 μM to 10 mM), detection limit (23 μM), especially the good stability, repeatability (RSD =1.3%) and the facile and simple synthetic process make the Ag@C@Ag nanospheres highly attractive for further investigations.