A porous PdO microrod-based electrochemical sensor for nanomolar-level Cu²⁺ released from cells

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Electrochemistry
• Nanotechnology

Background:

• Development of advanced materials for electrochemical sensing.
• Need for sensitive and selective detection of metal ions like copper (Cu2+).
• Exploration of palladium oxide nanostructures for catalytic applications.

Purpose of the Study:

• To synthesize highly porous Palladium Oxide microrods (PoPdOMRs) using a wet chemical method.
• To develop a sensitive and selective electrochemical sensor based on PoPdOMRs for Cu2+ determination.
• To evaluate the sensor's performance and applicability in real-world samples.

Main Methods:

• Facile wet chemical synthesis of PoPdOMRs.
• Fabrication of an electrochemical sensor using PoPdOMRs as the sensing platform.
• Electrochemical characterization and performance evaluation for Cu2+ detection.

Main Results:

• Successful synthesis of PoPdOMRs with well-defined morphology, large surface area, and active sites.
• The PoPdOMR sensor demonstrated a rapid response time (<8 s) and a wide linear range (1.0 × 10-9 to 8.0 × 10-5 mM).
• High sensitivity (112 μA μM-1 cm-2) and excellent selectivity for Cu2+ detection, even in the presence of interfering ions, were achieved.

Conclusions:

• PoPdOMRs are effective electrocatalysts for developing highly sensitive and selective electrochemical sensors.
• The developed sensor successfully detected trace amounts of Cu2+ released from Raw 264.7 cells.
• The PoPdOMR-based sensor shows significant promise for applications in bioanalysis and environmental chemistry.