Simultaneous detection of sunset yellow and tartrazine using the nanohybrid of gold nanorods decorated graphene oxide

•The nanohybrid of gold nanorods (AuNRs) decorated graphene oxide (GO) nanosheets was prepared•Electrochemical reduction was performed to obtain electro-reductive GO-AuNRs (ERGO-AuNRs)•ERGO-AuNRs exhibited high accumulation efficiency and superior electrocatalysis towards SY and TZ.

The nanohybrid of gold nanorods (AuNRs) decorated graphene oxide (GO) nanosheets was proposed to modify the glassy carbon electrode (GCE). Cyclic voltammetry was applied for the reduction of GO. The decorated AuNRs can facilitate the electrochemical reduction of GO. The characterization was performed by AFM, FT-IR, TEM, UV-Vis spectroscopy, and Raman spectroscopy. Due to the huge surface area, high sorption capacity, and subtle electronic properties, the electro-reduced gold nanorods decorated graphene oxide (ERGO-AuNRs) displayed high accumulation efficiency as well as considerable surface enhancement effects for the electro-oxidation of sunset yellow (SY) and tartrazine (TZ). Under the optimized experiment conditions, the present ERGO-AuNRs modified electrode showed linear response to SY and TZ in concentration range of 0.01-3.0 μM and 0.03-6.0 μM with a detection limit of 2.4 and 8.6 nM, respectively.

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