Synthesis of gold nanoflakes decorated biomass-derived porous carbon and its application in electrochemical luteolin sensing

Abstract The preparation and application of biomass-derived porous carbon (BPC) have aroused intensive attentions due to the advantages of eco-friendliness, abundant resources, and low cost. Herein banyan leaves derived BPC was prepared by calcination technique with rich three-dimensional interconnected frameworks. Furthermore, Au nanoflakes (AuNFs) were decorated on BPC by hydrothermal method to obtain AuNFs-BPC nanocomposite. The morphology, structure and composition of AuNFs-BPC were characterized by SEM, XRD, Raman and XPS techniques. AuNFs-BPC was modified on glassy carbon electrode surface to construct a functional sensing platform for the investigation on electrochemical behaviors of luteolin. Obvious enhanced electrochemical signals of luteolin could be observed, which was bigger than that on bare electrode. The electrode reaction mechanism was studied with the electron transfer coefficient and standard heterogeneous reaction rate constant calculated as 0.51 and 1.99 s−1. Consequently, an AuNFs-BPC modified electrode based voltammetric sensor for luteolin determination was constructed with a low detection limit of 0.07 μmol/L (3S0/S). This novel sensing platform displays great potential for practical and reliable luteolin determination in Duyiwei capsules and human urine samples.