Synthesis of novel amperometric urea-sensor using hybrid synthesized NiO-NPs/GO modified GCE in aqueous solution of cetrimonium bromide

Abstract In this study NiO nanostructures were synthesized via combinational synthetic method (ultrasound-assisted biosynthesis) and immobilized on the glassy carbon electrode (GCE) as a highly sensitive and selective enzyme-less sensor for urea detection. NiO-NPs were fully characterized using SEM, EDX, XRD, BET, TGA, FT-IR, UV–vis and Raman methods which revealed the formation of NiO nanostructures in the form of cotton like porous material and crystalline in nature with the average size of 3.8 nm. GCE was modified with NiO-NPs in aqueous solution of cetrimonium bromide(CTAB). Highly adhesive NiO/CTAB/GO nanocomposite membrane has been formed on GCE by immersing NiO/CTAB modified GCE in GO suspension. CTAB has a major role in the production and immobilization of the nanocomposites on the GCE surface and the binding NiO nanoparticles on GO plates. In addition, CTAB/GO composition made a highly adhesive surface on the GCE. The resulting NiO/CTAB/GO/GCE contains potently sensitive to urea in aqueous environments. The response of as developed amperometric sensor was linear in the range of 100–1200 µM urea with R 2 value of 0.991 and limit of detection (LOD), 8 µM. The sensor responded negligibly to various interfering species like glucose, uric acid and ascorbic acid. This sensor was applied successfully for determining urea in real water samples such as mineral water, tap water and river water with acceptable recovery.