Ecofriendly preparation of graphene sheets decorated with an ethylenediamine copper(ii) complex composite modified electrode for the selective detection of hydroquinone in water

Abstract

In the present work, we have prepared an ecofriendly reduced graphene oxide decorated copper(II) ethylenediamine complex ([Cu(en)₂]²⁺) (en = ethylenediamine) modified glassy carbon electrode (GCE) for the electrochemical detection of hydroquinone (HQ). The as-prepared composite was characterized by SEM, EDX, XRD, UV and FT-IR. Moreover, the electrochemical behaviour of the modified electrode was investigated by cyclic voltammetry (CV), electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and differential pulse voltammetry (DPV). In addition, the GCE/RGO/[Cu(en)₂]²⁺ modified electrode has excellent electrocatalytic activity towards the detection of HQ. Under the optimized conditions, the proposed sensor exhibited a wide linear detection response range of 0.1 μM–104 μM with a limit of detection of 0.025 μM and a sensitivity of 5.0763 μA μM⁻¹ cm⁻². Furthermore, the fabricated electrode exhibited acceptable reproducibility, repeatability and stability. On the other hand, the GCE/RGO/[Cu(en)₂]²⁺ modified electrodes have been applied for the real sample analysis in environmental water samples, which exhibit acceptable recovery. Hence, it is suggested that the GCE/RGO/[Cu(en)₂]²⁺ modified electrode is a potential electrode material that can be used for the detection of HQ in different real samples.