In situ synthesis of gold nanoparticles on porous polyacrylonitrile nanofibers for sensing applications

Abstract

A simple and cost-effective method was reported to synthesize small size (6 nm) gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) on polyacrylonitrile (PAN) electrospun nanofibers (AuNPs/PAN). The formation of AuNPs is attributed to the in situreduction of Au(III) to Au(0) by 4-(dimethylamino)benzaldehyde doped in the PAN nanofibers. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and cyclic voltammetry (CV) confirmed that the AuNPs/PAN nanofibers showed good conductivity. The AuNPs/PAN nanofibers were used to immobilize tris(2,2′-bipyridyl)ruthenium(II) ions (Ru(bpy)₃²⁺) to form an electrochemiluminescence (ECL) sensor. The AuNPs on the PAN nanofibers exhibited an excellent catalytic effect on the ECL of Ru(bpy)₃²⁺ which could be employed to detect low concentrations of phenolic compounds. The linear response range of the ECL sensor to hydroquinone is 0.55–37 μM with limit of detection of 80 nM (S/N = 3). This sensor has been successfully applied to determine the hydroquinone content in photographic developer samples. Our work provides a very simple and cost-effective method to synthesize AuNPs on polymer nanofibers which shows great potential in the field of electrocatalysis and chemo/biosensors.