Melt-quenched vanadium pentoxide-stabilized chitosan nanohybrids for efficient hydrazine detection

Abstract

Nanocrystalline low-dimensional nanostructured vanadium pentoxide (n-V₂O₅) nanoparticles were synthesized using a hydrothermal and melt-quenching approach without using any reducing agent, acids/bases, and hazardous solvents. Further, the synthesized V₂O₅ nanoparticles were successfully dispersed in a chitosan (CS) solution for fabricating an organic–inorganic nanohybrid matrix for the electrocatalytic determination of hydrazine to avoid human exposure. Furthermore, this study was supported by various sophisticated tools to characterize the synthesized V₂O₅ and V₂O₅–CS films, namely UV-Vis, PL, FTIR, XRD, SEM, AFM, TEM, and EDX. The V₂O₅–CS nanohybrid showed a substantial sensing strength when deposited onto an indium-tin-oxide (ITO)-coated glass substrate without ultrasonication and studied using amperometry and cyclic voltammetry techniques. Thus, the electrochemical responses against various hydrazine concentrations obtained from the fabricated V₂O₅–CS/ITO electrode demonstrated high sensitivity, a low detection limit, a quick response time, and a wide linear range of 50.48 μA μM⁻¹ cm⁻², 0.084 mM, 20 seconds, and 2–22 mM at a 50 mV scan rate, respectively. Hence, the utilization of V₂O₅–CS-based inorganic–organic nanohybrid materials fabricates a robust sensing system and a favorable sensing platform with wide applications towards the development of electrochemical sensor devices.