A novel electrochemical quercetin sensor based on Pd/MoS2-ionic liquid functionalized ordered mesoporous carbon

•IL-OMC was used as support to improve the conductivity of MoS2.•3D Pd/MoS2-IL-OMC composite was employed for constructing quercetin sensor.•The sensor showed high sensitivity and stability in sensing quercetin.

A quercetin (QR) sensor based on Pd/MoS2-ionic liquid functionalized ordered mesoporous carbon (Pd/MoS2-IL-OMC) composite is developed. The Pd/MoS2-IL-OMC composite is prepared by using IL as anchor and OMC as substrate. MoS2 nanosheets are in situ grown on IL-OMC surface and then Pd nanoparticles are prepared on MoS2 nanosheets via chemical reduction method. As the nanocomposite combines the high conductivity of IL-OMC and the electrocatalytic activity of Pd nanoparticles and MoS2, the resulting sensor exhibits good performance towards QR, better than MoS2-IL-OMC and Pd/IL-OMC nanocomposites modified electrodes. The electrochemical sensor allows for the selective determination of QR, with a detection limit of 8.0 nM (S/N = 3), a linear range of 0.020 μM-10 μM, and a sensitivity of 150.1 μA μM−1 cm−2. It also shows good reproducibility and stability, and can be applied to the detection of QR in real samples.

Graphical abstractA 3D Pd/MoS2-IL-OMC nanocomposite is prepared and used for the electrochemical detection of QR; it presents good performance.Download high-res image (114KB)Download full-size image