Construction of electrocatalyst based on in-situ growth silver nanoparticles into hollow porous carbon spheres for hydrogen peroxide detection

Abstract Considering the natural characteristic and wide application of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), it is great urgency to design superior electrocatalysts for high-performance determination of H2O2. Herein, silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) embedded into metal–organic frameworks derived hollow porous carbon spheres (HPCS) were successfully constructed and used as a highly sensitive electrochemical sensor. In this architecture, HPCS consisting of continuous hollow carbon bubbles show a highly ordered porous structure between the shells, which can not only provide a large surface area for embedding small size AgNPs and facilitating H2O2 penetration, but also process remarkable electronic conductivity to facilitate the electrochemical redox reaction. The constructed sensor offers a wide linear range of 5 orders magnitude from 0.004 to 17 mM with a detection limit of 0.188 µM and a sensitivity of 637 μA mM−1 cm−2 for H2O2, as well as good selectivity, excellent reproducibility and long-term stability due to a synergistic effect between HPCS and AgNPs, which guarantees the capability, accuracy and reliability of detection H2O2 in the real disinfectant sample. This work could provide an effective load matrix for encapsulating nanoparticles into hollow carbon bubbles, which examined as a superior electrocatalyst for hydrogen peroxide detection platform, showing a great potential for further application in various fields.