Ultrasensitive environmental sensing of nitroaromatic contaminants on nanocomposite of Prussian blue analogues cubes grown on glucose-derived porous carbon

Abstract In consideration of urgent need to detect trace nitroaromatic contaminants (NACs) in the environment, an ultrasensitive environmental sensing for NACs detection based on Prussian blue analogues cubes in situ grown on glucose-derived porous carbon materials (PBAcs/PC-x) was synthesized for the first time via a simple one-pot pyrolysis process followed by acid pickling. The prepared PBAcs/PC-800 sensor possesses abundant cyano groups (-CN) with lone-pair electrons, π-conjugated effect of porous carbon and NACs, high conductive carbon lattices and numerous active redox sites on PBAs, which boost the pre-adsorption of NACs, the electron transfer rate and the electrocatalysis activity toward reduction of NACs. Those synergetic effects endow the prepared PBAcs/PC-800/GC electrode with not only wide detection range from 1 to 1000 ppb for dinitrobenzene (DNB) detection but also an clear response to DNB at a level of 1 ∼ 10 ppb with an extremely high sensitivity of 443.1 μA ppm-1 (6271.8 μA ppm-1 cm-2), a good linearity of 0.9997 and a low detection limit of 0.12 ppb (S/N=3). Additionally, the proposed sensor possesses high reproducibility, good long-term stability, strong anti-interference ability, and also shows great potential for sensitive detection of NACs at ppb level in environmental water. The present work offers a great model for constructing efficient and promising environmental sensing for NACs detection.