A novel nonenzymatic hydrogen peroxide sensor based on electrospun nitrogen-doped carbon nanoparticles-embedded carbon nanofibers film

Abstract A novel nonenzymatic electrochemical sensor for the detection of hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ) was developed based on free-standing nitrogen-doped carbon nanoparticles-embedded carbon nanofibers (NCNPFs) film, which were prepared by the carbonization of electrospun polypyrrole nanoparticles/polyacrylonitrile (PPy NPs/PAN) composite nanofibers. A series of NCNPFs- x samples with different mass concentration of PPy NPs to PAN (wt.%) were prepared. When the PPy NPs precursor is 12 wt.%, large amount of resulting NCNPs are embedded uniformly in NCNFs substrate without obvious aggregation. The as-obtained NCNPFs-12 wt.% has smaller diameter, higher content of pyrrolic-N and more defective sites, which result in high electrocatalytic activity for H 2 O 2 reduction. The NCNPFs-12 wt.%-based H 2 O 2 sensor shows a fast amperometric response within 2 s, and a wide linear range of 5.0 × 10 −6 to 2.7 × 10 −2  M with a high sensitivity of 383.9 μA μM −1  cm −2 . In addition, this nonenzymatic sensor displays good selectivity, high reproducibility and long-term stability. Because of the remarkable analytical performances, the NCNPFs-12 wt.%-based electrochemical sensor shows potential applications for the detection of H 2 O 2 in human serum and disinfectant samples with satisfactory results.