Fabrication of MnO2/graphene oxide composite nanosheets and their application in hydrazine detection

Abstract

MnO₂/graphene oxide (GO) composite nanosheets have been successfully fabricated by a simple wet-chemical synthetic route. The composition and structure of the resulting MnO₂/GO composites were characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), energy dispersive X-ray diffraction (EDX), Fourier-transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns. The MnO₂/GO composite nanosheets exhibited good electrocatalytic behavior in detecting hydrazine at an applied potential of +0.6 V. The sensor showed a good linear dependence on hydrazine concentration in the range of 3 × 10⁻⁶ to 1.12 × 10⁻³ with a sensitivity of 1007 μA mM⁻¹ cm⁻². The detection limit is 0.16 μM at the signal-to-noise ratio of 3. Furthermore, the MnO₂/GO modified electrode exhibits freedom from interference by other co-existing electroactive species. These results demonstrate that MnO₂/GO composites have great potential in the application of hydrazine detection.