Zinc porphyrin-fullerene derivative noncovalently functionalized graphene hybrid as interfacial material for...

In this paper, a p-methoxy zinc porphyrin-fullerene derivative (ZnPp-C60) noncovalently functionalized electrochemically reduced graphene oxide (ERGO) hybrid (ERGO@ZnPp-C60) was facilely obtained by π-π stacking interaction between zinc porphyrin ring and ERGO. The hybrid was characterized by scanning electron microscope (SEM), electrochemistry, UV-vis spectra, and density functional theory (DFT), which demonstrated that the presence of ERGO caused more redox reversibility and higher electrocatalytic activity of ZnPp-C60. By using their synergistic effects of the remarkable mechanical, electrical, catalytic, and structural properties, ERGO@ZnPp-C60 incorporated in tetraoctylammonium bromide (TOAB) film was modified on the glassy carbon electrode (GCE) to construct a novel non-enzymatic electrochemical sensor. The sensor exhibited enhancing response sensitivity for the electrocatalyic reduction of hydrogen peroxide with a high sensitivity of 451.3μAmM(-1) and a limit of detection (LOD) as low as 0.27μM. The sensitivity is 2-fold larger than that of TOAB/ZnPp-C60/GCE in the absence of ERGO. Although a high detecting sensitivity of 162.5μAmM(-1) for electrocatalytic oxidation of nitrite could be also obtained on the presented sensor, the sensitivity is lower than that of TOAB/ZnPp-C60/GCE (233.9μAmM(-1)) due to the change in the structure of ZnPp-C60 and the electronic interactions between GO and ZnPp-C60. Even though, the smart hybrid (ERGO@ZnPp-C60) possesses obvious advantage for the fabrication of non-enzymatic electrochemical sensor and paves a new avenue for constructing C60 derivative and graphene based materials.