Graphene/ Graphene Oxide Based Pyrimidine Hybrid Materials for Metal Ion Sensing and DFT Study

Chemical and biological sensors are gaining wide popularity in day-to-day life and significantly help to increase the survivability by providing early warning for explosives, metal pollutant, and chemical warfare. GR analog based sensor devices have several advantages for chemical and biological sensing. The structural or chemical modifications of GR remarkably improve the properties of such device applications. Keeping this in mind, we have designed and synthesized pyrimidinedione-functionalized graphene oxide (FGO) and functionalized graphene (FG) sequentially. Synthesis of the hybrid materials was done using the simple hydrothermal method. The materials were characterized by various spectroscopic and analytical techniques. XRD study showed formation of well exfoliated GO sheets in the composite. FTIR data indicates the formation of GO-NO-Ur composites. Density functional theory (DFT) calculation was also investigated to understand the various non-covalent interactions of the NO-Ur and FGO. For the detection of metal ions, synthesized nanocomposite was analyzed to sense many metal ions (Ag+, Cd2+, Cu2+, Fe3+, Hg2+, Mo2+, Ni2+, and Zn2+) and we observed strong binding mood against Fe3+ ions having LOD and LOQ value of 0.0032 μM and 0.01 μM respectively.