A facile synthesis of novel polyaniline/graphene nanocomposite thin films for enzyme-free electrochemical sensing of hydrogen peroxide

The electrochemical method is the most effective, facile, and economical approach for the detection of small molecules. The present article deals with the design and engineering of polymer–graphene-based thin films through an in situ facile synthesis technique for the development of high performance electrochemical sensors. We report a facile technique for preparing polyaniline (PANI) and polyaniline/graphene (PANI/G) nanocomposite thin films and their application as enzyme-free electrochemical sensors for hydrogen peroxide (H2O2). PANI and PANI/G films were deposited on a dopamine modified ITO substrate via spin coating and in situ deposition techniques. The in situ fabricated films, which exhibited better electrical properties and stability as compared to the spin coated films, were studied in detail. These thin films were characterized using UV-visible spectroscopy, FT-IR spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and atomic force microscopy (AFM) to study their optical, chemical, and surface textural properties. Results show a homogeneous distribution of the constituting materials. From the AFM results, it was found out that the PANI/G film showed increased surface roughness (∼20 nm) as compared to the PANI film (∼15 nm). The electrochemical properties of the films were determined using the van der Pauw method and cyclic voltammetry technique. The conductivity of the PANI and PANI/G films was estimated to be 5.38 × 103 and 6.84 × 103 S cm−1, respectively. Finally, the electrochemical sensing performances of the PANI and PANI/G films were investigated towards H2O2 reduction in a wide potential range of −0.6 to 0.6 V in 0.1 M PBS solution of pH 7.0. This work demonstrates the application of thin-film technology for the development of nanodevice sensors.